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| Old School Soldering |
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| Bud:
--- Quote from: helius on January 03, 2021, 09:04:37 pm ---While fascinating from a history standpoint, these tools were amazingly dangerous for such a commonplace item. Beyond melting snow, I'm not sure they are practical for anything these days. --- End quote --- Yes yes, "think of the children". This tool was a common tool , same uses that you'd use a propane torch these days. |
| CJay:
--- Quote from: Bud on January 03, 2021, 10:31:53 pm --- --- Quote from: helius on January 03, 2021, 09:04:37 pm ---While fascinating from a history standpoint, these tools were amazingly dangerous for such a commonplace item. Beyond melting snow, I'm not sure they are practical for anything these days. --- End quote --- Yes yes, "think of the children". This tool was a common tool , same uses that you'd use a propane torch these days. --- End quote --- Except propane is considerably more safe than those things. |
| ferdieCX:
When I was a child, I saw oft people using this kind of torch for plumbing. They were also useful to remove paint from wood and metal. |
| tautech:
Gave both my blow torches to my neighbor that has a collection of ~100 of them. Some he has are so small their tanks hold just a couple of hundred ml and have no pump as the head heating bowl is part of the tank so when heating the head the tank get pressurized while doing so. That they are also so compact there's enough heat from the head to keep the tank pressurized. His big blowtorches have tanks of at least 1 imp gal (4.5l) and hand pumps like an old bicycle stirrup pump to pressurize them.....these make Joes new acquisition look like a toy. :P Some rare medium size models even have 2 nozzles one of which is quite small and can be lit without preheat, just with a match and its only purpose is for fast heating of the main head to get it up and running quickly. Typically fuels were kerosene and white spirits (78 octane petrol) however every model was designed to run on one or the other and not normally either. Preheat fuels used also depended on OEM design with white spirits (gas) units able to preheat on spirits/gas although it turned the head black with soot and kerosene was even worse so methylated sprits was the preheat fuel of choice for all types as there was no soot produced however the inconvenience of also needing to carry a lighting fuel meant meths was rarely used and consequently blowlamp heads were normally a sooty black that mostly burnt away in use. Joes use of Coleman fuel was a good safe bet not knowing precisely which fuel it might run best on and also adequate for the preheat although one would normally open the fuel valve just before the the preheat flame had used all it fuel for the preheat flame to also light the burner. Earlier in my lifetime it was common to see blowlamps used by various trades and particularly plumbers before silicone sealants were in wide use. They mostly used these: However this style of iron was also useful for sheet metal jointing work: Telecoms used blowlamps and large handheld irons for their early lead wrapped cable joints and their large copper irons were prized in NZ for conversion to lamb tailing irons which we normally heated in the coals of a small fire in a 4 gallon tin. Big irons like the one on the blowlamp here: Main blowlamp brands we saw in NZ were Primus and Sievert. Must get a pic of my buddies big collection................ |
| joeqsmith:
I always appreciate peoples concern for my safety. This torch requires some level of skill to operate and maintain it. Consider I had pressure tested the unit and checked for leaks using water. During the pressure testing, I had ran the pressure higher than I intended to run the torch at. This was after a full inspection, cleaning and replacement of bad parts. When it came time to run it, my wife was ready with the fire extinguisher. Going forward, I have some experience using Viton with various fuels. I went away from the cup seal and designed a new brass piston that uses O-rings. Where the leather seals would hold air pressure (nothing but air in the tank) for about 15 minutes or so, the new Viton seals will hold pressure for a half day. Of course, anytime you are playing with fire, expect it can be hot and can burn you! Parents must have let me learn that at at a very young age. Imagine the moral outrage that would cause today! :-DD If we look at the CDC death rates, heart disease still leads the way. The couch may not be so safe! :-DD Another aspect of playing with a torch like this is you are handling chemicals that are known to cause cancer which is the second leading cause of death. I often think that if we had to recreate our personal transportation system today, we couldn't. Imagine trying to tell someone that they get to fill their car with a highly toxic cocktail of cancer causing chemicals. They do it without a hazmat suit, special training and no MSDS on hand. They can even open the valve and pour it on themselves. Even better, we now place an unskilled driver in the car and turn them loose on a public road. Of course we will try and dumb down this complex system with people who can't write software. Mix that with some cell phones and ethanol... Accidents should be number three on the list! :-DD |
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