I spent a total of 3 hours on this bead this weekend - my Andrea Guarino Slemmons knock off. After all the filligrana and murrini making, and then melting the glass for this monster - my hands were getting sore. I use a Nortel minor with a concentrator. This torch just did not have the ooomph to melt the glass down fast enough. You can't tell from the picture, but it is quite thick - about 3/4". I was trying to use my large Jim Moore mashers to make it into an approximate 2" diameter x 1/2" disk. I love my minor for small beads, but I seem to want to make larger and larger creations. Might have to think about a torch upgrade.....