Short answer: The Carlisle Mini CC (about $330) and the Bethlehem Alpha (about $350) are near siblings for a first bench: both are single-stage, fully surface-mix bench burners that work soft glass and borosilicate, and both are designed to run on household gas and an oxygen concentrator rather than bulk oxygen and shop pressure. Pick the Mini CC if you like its 7-tube flame in a finned brass body and the tilting 45-degree ball-joint stand that lets you angle the head to your work. Pick the Alpha if you want a compact all-stainless torch, the widest fuel list (it also runs butane), and Bethlehem’s home-studio positioning. Neither is a wrong first bench, so decide on flame feel, fuel setup, and what you can actually get in good condition, not on the small price gap.
If you are still mapping a whole first setup rather than choosing between these two specific torches, start with the best beginner glass torch guide and come back to this head-to-head once you have shortlisted the Mini CC and the Alpha.
The two torches at a glance
Both figures below come from each maker’s own pages and manuals where we have them, and are labelled as estimates where they are ours. Oxygen values in particular are ballpark, not headline specs (more on that below). Confirm the current spec with the maker before you buy.
| Spec | Carlisle Mini CC | Bethlehem Alpha |
|---|---|---|
| Mix type | Surface mix (fully surface mix) | Surface mix |
| Gas jets | 7-tube matrix | 6 |
| Stages | 1 | 1 |
| Mount | Bench | Bench |
| Reference price | $330 | $350 |
| Fuels | Natural gas, propane (with oxygen) | Natural gas, hydrogen, propane, butane |
| Oxygen (estimate) | ~7 LPM | ~10 LPM |
| Glass | Soft and boro | Soft and boro |
One clarification up front, because the Mini CC gets confused with its bigger relatives: the Mini CC is a fully surface-mix torch. The full-size Carlisle CC family runs a premixed center fire inside a surface-mix outer, but the Mini does not. On a surface-mix torch the fuel and oxygen stay separate until they reach or just pass the face of the burner, which is the calm, forgiving flame most teachers steer beginners toward. See surface mix vs premix torches for why that distinction matters at the bench.
What the two torches share
For a beginner, the similarities matter more than the differences, because they are what make either torch a safe starting point.
Both are surface mix. Carlisle builds the Mini CC around a 7-tube stainless-steel matrix seated in a finned brass body; Bethlehem’s own Alpha operating instructions state the flame is surface mixed, with gas and oxygen kept apart until they leave the face. Either way you get a quieter, slower-moving flame that is more forgiving of uneven rotation and beginner timing than a high-velocity premix flame.
Both run on household gas plus a concentrator. Neither torch needs bulk oxygen or high shop pressure to light. The Mini CC will run on natural gas at house pressure, and Bethlehem positions the Alpha the same way: designed for household gas at roughly 1/4 psi and a 7 psi oxygen concentrator. This is the practical reason both sit in the entry band. You can feed either one without a second concentrator or a tank habit, at least for soft glass and small work.
Both change flame size with the valves, not by swapping tips. You dial the flame up and down at the oxygen and gas needle valves. There are no interchangeable tips to buy, lose, or learn, which keeps the early learning curve about your hands rather than your hardware.
Both are catalogued for soft glass and boro. Each maker lists its torch as suitable for soft (soda-lime) glass and borosilicate. Neither is a soft-glass-only starter the way a Hot Head is (see the hot head torch guide), so you can follow your curiosity into boro without immediately outgrowing the torch.
The Carlisle Mini CC
The Mini CC’s signature is its build. The 7-tube surface-mix matrix sits inside a finned brass body, and the whole head mounts on a stand that holds it at a 45-degree angle on a ball joint, allowing roughly 15 degrees of extra tilt. For a beginner that adjustability is genuinely useful: you can angle the flame to your seat and your work instead of contorting yourself to the torch.
Carlisle publishes clear standard-use numbers for the Mini CC: about 1.5 LPM propane and about 7 LPM oxygen at standard consumption, with recommended operating pressures of about 2 psi fuel gas and about 5 psi oxygen. Those are the standard-use recommendation, not the only settings the torch will tolerate. Pressure also splits by fuel: on natural gas the manual allows a low range that works at household pressure, while propane runs at the higher end of that window. Do not collapse the two into one pressure claim; read the manual for your specific fuel and match your regulator to it. The Mini CC runs oxygen with natural gas or propane.
The Bethlehem Alpha
Bethlehem markets the Alpha as an entry-level burner aimed squarely at glass bead artists. It is a single-stage surface-mix bench torch with 6 gas jets that melts both soft and boro glass. The pitch is high fuel volume at low inlet pressure: Bethlehem quotes about 7 cubic feet per hour at only 2 psi gas, and designs the torch to run on household gas and a 7 psi oxygen concentrator. Its operating instructions list four fuels: natural gas, hydrogen, propane, or butane.
The Alpha’s flame adjusts from a soft bushy flame down toward a more penetrating point as you work the valves, which covers the range a beginner needs for stringer control on beads and for heating small boro. Bethlehem frames it as a convenient, home-scale torch rather than a production burner, which matches where it lands in price and oxygen appetite.
Running them on real-world oxygen
Treat the oxygen numbers on both torches as estimates, because the bases differ by maker. Our catalog stores a single max-usable-flame oxygen figure per torch. The Mini CC’s roughly 7 LPM is Carlisle’s standard-use consumption figure; the Alpha’s 10 LPM is Bethlehem’s full-flame tanked-oxygen consumption, not a minimum you must hit. They are not measured against an identical yardstick, so do not read the difference as one torch being thirstier than the other in normal use.
What that means in practice:
- A single oxygen concentrator in the common lampworking range (roughly 4.5 to 10 LPM, about 7 to 9 psi) will light and run either torch for soft-glass beadwork and small boro. Concentrators in this class are low-pressure enough to skip a regulator and are meant to run continuously, and both of these benches are explicitly concentrator-friendly.
- Push seriously into boro, and you will want more oxygen than one small concentrator provides. A single small concentrator suits soft glass and small work; larger solid boro pushes you toward a bigger concentrator, a second unit, or tanked oxygen.
- For the wider question of how many LPM your work actually needs, see how many LPM does my torch need and the oxygen concentrator LPM guide.
Bethlehem’s published tanked-oxygen figures for the Alpha vary by source. The manufacturer page cites roughly 8 to 20 psi tanked oxygen at about 10 LPM, while a secondary summary lists about 8 psi at 27 cubic feet per hour (about 12.7 LPM). Take the manufacturer range as the reference and confirm the current figure with Bethlehem for your exact setup.
Editor’s note: oxygen figures here vary by source and by what each maker measures. The Mini CC’s is Carlisle’s standard-use consumption; the Alpha’s is Bethlehem’s full-flame tanked-oxygen figure, and Bethlehem’s own tanked-oxygen numbers differ between its product page and a secondary summary. Confirm current pressures and flows with the maker for your exact configuration before buying gas equipment. The manufacturer’s manual takes precedence over any general figure, including ours.
Surface mix and flashback
Both torches are surface mix, and a surface-mix flashback takes extraordinary circumstances (an empty oxygen supply pulling the flame back, or a leak causing gases to pre-mix) rather than being a routine risk. That is one reason surface-mix benches are the beginner-friendly choice.
Do not reach for a blanket one-size-fits-all arrestor rule, because it is not what the makers say. Bethlehem’s own guidance is that its surface-mix burners do not require a flashback arrestor, while premix torches do, subject to local regulation. The right approach is the flashback protection your specific torch and gas supply call for, not a universal checklist. Placement language matters too: a regulator-side device protects the regulator and supply from an event that already traveled the hose, while a torch-side device stops it before it enters the hose. Read your torch’s manual, match the device to your own setup, and see flashback arrestors explained for the details.
Beginner trade-offs and honest verdict
Choose the Carlisle Mini CC if: you want the tilting 45-degree ball-joint stand and the 7-tube brass-bodied build, and you like that Carlisle publishes concrete standard-use flow and pressure numbers so you know what to set your regulators to. At about $330 it is the slightly lower entry cost, and the adjustable head angle is a real ergonomic advantage on a small bench.
Choose the Bethlehem Alpha if: you value the widest fuel list (natural gas, hydrogen, propane, or butane), you want a compact all-stainless torch built around low-pressure fuel volume, or you have better local or used access to Bethlehem gear. The roughly $20 premium is small next to the rest of a first setup, so let fuel needs and availability decide rather than the sticker.
For most first-time buyers focused on soft-glass beads with an eye toward some boro, either torch will serve for years. The honest tiebreakers are ergonomics, fuel flexibility, and which one you can get your hands on in good condition. Neither replaces a proper oxygen supply, eyewear rated for your glass, and time at the bench, and neither will hold you back while you build the fundamentals. When you outgrow an entry bench, that is the moment to spend up the line toward a larger surface-mix or a Triple Mix burner, not before.
Related guides
- Best beginner glass torch: forgiving first torches
- Surface mix vs premix torches
- Flashback arrestors explained
- How many LPM does my torch need
- Oxygen concentrator LPM guide
Sources
- Carlisle Machine Works, Mini CC bench burner page: http://carlislemachine.com/as_benchburners/minicc.php
- Bethlehem Burners, Alpha product page: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/torches/alpha/
- Bethlehem Burners, Alpha operating instructions: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/resources/operating-instructions/alpha-operating-instructions/
- Bethlehem Burners, “The Alpha Torch”: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/news/alpha-torch/
- Bethlehem Burners, “Oxygen Concentrator Questions”: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/news/oxygen-concentrator-questions/
- D. A. Clarke, “Oxygen Boxen” (community reference on concentrators): https://www.daclarke.org/ArsBrevis/oxyBoxen.html