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Lampworking Torch Setup Guide: Empty Bench to First Flame

Step-by-step lampworking torch setup: bench placement, gas supply, regulator pressures, hoses, flashback protection, leak testing, first light, shutdown.

By Joe Blanchard, sixteen years on the distribution side of the glass industry · Updated

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Short answer: You set up a lampworking torch in the same order every time. Bolt the torch to a non-combustible bench with ventilation and clearance, stage the fuel and oxygen supplies with the cylinders secured upright, and fit a dedicated regulator to each gas. Run Grade T twin hose with B fittings (fuel takes the left-hand-threaded, notched nut), fit the flashback protection your torch and gas supply call for, and leak-test every joint with an approved leak-test solution or oil-free soap and water. Then light the fuel first and bring the oxygen in slowly. When you finish, shut down in reverse, bleed the lines and close the supplies at the source. Pressures are set by the torch, not by a rule of thumb: GTT’s Lynx sheet asks for 5 to 8 PSI fuel and 15 to 25 PSI oxygen, while GTT’s sheet for its larger torches calls for around 35 PSI oxygen, and the manufacturer’s sheet always wins.

This page puts the whole hookup in step order and leaves the depth to two companion guides. The glass torch safety setup checklist covers eyewear, ventilation, cylinder handling and oxygen hygiene, and the fittings, hoses, and connectors guide covers thread standards, hose grades and Y connectors. If you haven’t bought a torch yet, start with the complete buyer’s guide.

Not a substitute for the manual. The steps and example pressures below come from published manufacturer instructions and setup guides. Every torch model has its own sheet; GTT, for instance, ships recommended settings with each new torch. Where anything here differs from your torch maker’s instructions or local code, follow the maker and the code.

Step 1: Place and mount the torch on the bench

Get the physical station right before any gas comes near it.

  • Non-combustible surface. Use metal, masonry or another fire-rated bench top, and keep paper, solvents and plastics well away from it. Hot glass lands where you don’t expect it.
  • Bolt or clamp the torch down. Anchor a bench torch so it can’t tip over or get dragged off by its hoses. GTT’s instructions call for the torch base and lines to be anchored and secure; torch mounting and bench angle covers studs, stands and clamps.
  • Position for posture and clearance. Set the torch far enough back from the bench edge that your forearms rest comfortably, with nothing in the flame path above or behind it. Bench height and seating are worked through in ergonomics at the torch.
  • Ventilation and exits. Put the bench where an exhaust hood or fan can pull combustion products away from your face, and where you can reach the door and the gas shutoffs without crossing the flame. Hood, fan and make-up air sizing are in studio ventilation design, and the safety setup guide covers CO detection and the fire extinguisher; treat both as part of this step.

Plan the hose runs while you’re here. Each hose should reach its supply without kinking, crossing a walkway or draping near the flame.

Step 2: Stage the gas supplies

A torch burns two gases, a fuel gas and oxygen, and each one needs its own supply.

  • Fuel. Most hobby setups run a propane cylinder, and some studios plumb natural gas to the bench instead. A torch can’t switch between the two without the correct configuration, which propane vs natural gas for torchwork explains. Store propane according to local rules, which often mean outdoors or under strict indoor limits.
  • Oxygen. You’ll draw it from compressed cylinders (high pressure, regulator required) or an oxygen concentrator (low pressure, no regulator on the machine itself). The choice changes the plumbing; oxygen concentrator vs tanks walks through both. If you’re unsure your supply can feed your torch at all, check how many LPM your torch needs before you buy.

Secure every cylinder upright with a chain, a strap or a stand before you attach anything. Keep oil and grease away from everything on the oxygen side, and keep the two supplies apart from each other and from heat.

Step 3: Fit the regulators and set working pressures

Each gas gets its own dedicated regulator: an oxygen regulator for the oxygen and a fuel-gas regulator for your specific fuel, attached to the cylinder valve with clean fittings. Bethlehem’s accessories guide recommends a regulator with two gauges on the fuel side too, one reading cylinder pressure and one reading outlet pressure, so you can see what’s left in the tank and what you’re sending to the torch. Before you open any cylinder valve, back the regulator adjustment screw out (counterclockwise until it turns loose) so the regulator starts at minimum delivery. Then open the cylinder valve slowly and dial the outlet pressure up to the torch maker’s numbers.

Those numbers depend entirely on the torch. The examples below show how far apart they sit; none of them is a setting for your torch.

  • A Nortel Minor manual mirrored on the Hive13 hackerspace wiki gives roughly 0.25 to 5 PSI fuel gas and 5 to 15 PSI oxygen; Nortel’s own pages that we have read give no pressures, so treat the mirror as community-held documentation and confirm with Nortel. Setup guides often suggest about 5 PSI propane and 10 PSI oxygen as a starting point, but 5 PSI sits at the top of that fuel range, so the safer habit is to start lower and work up.
  • GTT’s instruction sheet for its Delta, Mirage and Phantom family calls for much more, around 35 PSI oxygen. The same sheet describes 5 PSI gas and 10 PSI oxygen as a bare minimum, a setting at which the torch runs but underperforms. The smaller Lynx’s own instruction sheet gives 5 to 8 PSI fuel and 15 to 25 PSI oxygen, and GTT’s Flow Rate Chart gives the Lynx 10 to 15 PSI oxygen at the largest usable flame, so even one maker’s documents differ; use the sheet that came with your torch.
  • Bethlehem publishes operating instructions model by model (the Alpha has its own, for example) instead of one universal number.

With a spread that wide, you won’t find a universal “lampworking pressure.” Set what your torch’s documentation says, and if you’ve lost the sheet, get it from the manufacturer. Concentrator users skip the oxygen regulator entirely: the machine delivers a few PSI on its own, and you work with flow (LPM) instead of a regulated pressure.

Step 4: Connect hoses and fittings

Run one hose per gas from regulator to torch. Check what came in the torch box first: some makers ship fittings, adapters or short hoses with the torch and others ship the burner alone, as our torch kit guide lists by maker. This is the short version; the fittings and hoses guide has the full detail.

  • Hose grade: for propane or natural gas, use Grade T twin welding hose, which is rated for all fuel gases. Grade R is for acetylene only and degrades on propane.
  • Fittings: lampworking torches and regulators almost universally use B-size (9/16”-18) connections. Fuel runs on a left-hand thread, marked by a notched nut, and oxygen runs on a normal right-hand thread. The mismatch is deliberate: the wrong hose won’t thread on, so if a connection resists, you’re on the wrong port. Never force it or adapt it.
  • Concentrator note: a concentrator usually ends in a small hose barb instead of a B fitting, so expect an adapter on that line, and confirm the exact part with your supplier.

Snug each fitting with a wrench on clean, dry threads, with no oil anywhere near the oxygen side. Route the hoses where nobody can step on them, pinch them or heat them.

Step 5: Fit the flashback protection your torch and supply call for

A regulator-mounted arrestor protects the regulator and cylinder from a flashback that has already traveled through the hose; it does not protect that hose from the event. A check valve stops reverse gas flow, not a flame. Your torch, supply and device instructions determine the protection:

  • Premix torches: Bethlehem states that an arrestor is required.
  • Surface-mix torches: Bethlehem’s Alpha instructions state an exception for its surface-mix burners, subject to regulations. GTT recommends arrestors as backup for its surface-mix torches.
  • Oxygen concentrator output: GTT warns against its conventional arrestors there. Its arrestors need roughly 5 to 7 psi to open, so on a concentrator they may not open and will severely restrict flow. GTT’s instruction is an arrestor on the fuel source instead.

Identify all circuits, including any premix section of a hybrid, and each supply separately. If required protection conflicts with the supply’s pressure or flow, resolve it with the equipment makers or a qualified installer before lighting; do not bypass a required device. Mount each device at its specified location. Arrestors are directional, so confirm the flow arrow points toward the torch, and replace them on the maker’s service interval. Sources: GTT and Bethlehem’s Alpha instructions. The full decision path is in flashback arrestors explained.

Step 6: Pressurize and leak-test everything

Make every connection and keep the torch valves closed, then:

  1. Open each cylinder valve slowly, standing to the side of the regulator face as standard oxy-fuel practice advises, and bring the regulators up to working pressure.
  2. Apply an approved leak-test solution or oil-free soap and water to every joint between the cylinder and the torch, including both sides of any flashback device you fitted. Growing bubbles mean a leak. Depressurize, reseat or tighten the joint, and test again until every joint stays clean.
  3. Welding practice adds a useful second check. Close the cylinder valve and watch the gauges for a few minutes; if the pressure falls with everything shut, gas is escaping somewhere. If the outlet gauge instead climbs with the torch valves closed, that is regulator creep; see regulator troubleshooting.

Never hunt for a leak with a flame. Take your time over this step, and repeat the soap test whenever you move the bench, change a cylinder or swap a component.

Step 7: First light

Before you strike, put on eyewear specified for the glass and work. For boro, verify sodium-flare, UV and IR protection together; a didymium name or dark tint alone is insufficient. Turn the ventilation on and light with a striker rather than a butane lighter, keeping your hand out of the flame path. Nearly every surface-mix lampworking torch lights in the same sequence, taught under the memorable acronym POOP: Propane on, Oxygen on; Oxygen off, Propane off:

  1. Concentrator users: start the machine first and let it run several minutes to reach purity.
  2. With the torch’s oxygen valve closed, crack the fuel valve slightly and light it at the torch face. You want a modest, steady yellow flame (GTT suggests something on the order of a 6 to 7 inch candle; your manual may differ).
  3. Open the oxygen valve slowly. The flame turns from yellow to blue as combustion completes. Adjust until the small inner candles at the torch face look sharp and defined. If the oxygen blows the flame out, close it, relight with a little more fuel and bring the oxygen in more gradually.
  4. Fine-tune both valves for a neutral flame suited to your glass. If you’re brand new, the best beginner glass torch guide covers what a first flame should look like on starter torches.

Premix torches have their own lighting quirks, which is one more reason your manufacturer’s sheet outranks this page (see surface mix vs premix torches).

Step 8: Shutdown and making the system safe

At the end of a session:

  1. At the torch, turn the oxygen off first, then the fuel. Welders still debate the turn-off order for alternate fuel gases, but the dominant lampworking convention, and the one most torch makers teach, is oxygen first. It avoids the pop or backfire some torches produce otherwise. Follow your manual if it says differently.
  2. Close the supplies at the source: cylinder valves shut, concentrator off. Never walk away from the studio with a cylinder valve open.
  3. Bleed the lines. Open the torch valves one at a time to vent each hose until its gauge reads zero, then close the torch valves and back out the regulator adjustment screws. Don’t leave hoses and regulators sitting pressurized overnight.

Your next session starts from that drained, closed state: go back to Step 6 and reopen the valves.

Setup sequence at a glance

The table compresses the eight steps above; it is not a specification. Pressures, fittings and procedures vary by torch and supplier, so check each row against the documentation for your own equipment.

StepWhat you doWatch out for
1. BenchNon-combustible top; bolt torch down; ventilationFlammables in the flame path; unanchored torch
2. SuppliesFuel + oxygen staged; cylinders secured uprightOil/grease near oxygen
3. RegulatorsDedicated per gas; screw backed out, then set to maker’s PSINo universal pressure; the manual wins
4. Hoses/fittingsGrade T twin hose; B fittings (fuel = left-hand, notched)Never force or adapt a fitting
5. Flashback protectionPer your torch and device makers; arrow to torch; check device pressure and flow, including GTT’s concentrator warningPremix and surface mix differ, and the wrong device can starve a low-pressure supply
6. Leak testApproved leak-test solution or oil-free soap and water on every joint; gauge-drop checkNever test with a flame
7. First lightFuel lit first; oxygen added slowly; tune to neutralBlown-out flame: relight with more fuel
8. ShutdownOxygen off, fuel off; close supplies; bleed linesDon’t leave lines pressurized

Key takeaways

  • Setup runs in a fixed order: bench → supplies → regulators → hoses → flashback protection → leak test → first light → shutdown. Leaks and cross-connections come from doing the steps out of order.
  • Regulator pressures are torch-specific. GTT’s Lynx sheet gives 5 to 8 PSI fuel and 15 to 25 PSI oxygen, while GTT’s sheet for its larger torches calls for around 35 PSI oxygen. Use the maker’s numbers, not a generic one.
  • Use Grade T hose, B fittings and the flashback protection your torch and supply call for; the fittings guide has the depth.
  • Leak-test with an approved solution or oil-free soap and water every time you assemble or change the system, and never with a flame.
  • Light the fuel first and add oxygen slowly; shut down oxygen first, then fuel. Close the supplies at the source and bleed the lines after every session.
  • Treat everything here as general guidance, and confirm each step with your torch manufacturer, gas supplier and local code. This page does not replace the manufacturer’s instructions or a qualified professional.

Sources

Editor’s note: this walkthrough reflects published manufacturer instructions and community guidance as of 2026. Pressures, fittings, and procedures vary by torch model and gas supply; always follow the instruction sheet for your specific torch, your gas supplier’s guidance, and local fire and gas codes, and consult a qualified professional for your installation.

About the author

Written and edited by Joe Blanchard, who spent 2007 to 2023 on the distribution side of the glass industry in Asheville, North Carolina. GlassTorches.com is his independent, manufacturer-first buyer's guide. More about the editor.

How this guide was sourced: figures come from the manufacturer's own pages and manuals where we have them and are labelled as estimates where they are ours; the catalog on this site is the source of truth, and where sources disagree the guide says so. Confirm the current spec with the maker before you buy. How we work.