The 1 lb bottle will not survive infinite refills, but whichever
make of 1 lb bottle you get, you will get it refilled often enough to
pay for this adapter during your first 20 lb cylinder.
Cool so far. So what happens when the 1lb bottle gets to its
post-infinite time? You do that with a disposable refrigeration gas
container and you get yourself in all kinds of trouble with the
authorities.And refrigeration gas is not even flammable. Believe me,
gas that has left the cylinder without an exit pass does not abide
by the rules of society.
I’ve used a couple of butane torches. The first was a kitchen tool
and lasted about a year of moderate servive, it started shooting a
flame of about 16 inches with no encouragement from me. I found one
that is much better called PT-500 at the following link http://www.solder-it.com/pt500.asp for 59$ I’ve seen it for as low
as 40$ so look around. It is made for the auto industry and has
performed very well. I think I heard about it on this site some time
ago. It uses disposable butane. I use it for all my small jobs like
earrings, jump rings etc. good luck
For those looking for a very reliable, easy to use & long lived
butane torch, take a look at the Proxxon MicroFlam.
It’s about 6" tall & 1 1/2" in diameter. The handle holds about 1
1/2 hr. of fuel. The flame is adjustable & the torch has a built in
push button igniter. It works well on silver & gold. The largest
silver pieces I’ve soldered were about 1"sq. For jump rings it’s
wonderful.
Proxxon products are German made & come with a 2 yr. warranty.
They’re available from Kenneth Singh, who’s a member & support of
Orchid & from Rio Grande, also a staunch Orchid supporter. They may
be available from others as well, but I’m familiar with these two.
Usual disclaimers, just a very satisfied customer!
But no small things like earring posts. Perhaps I'll solder with
the inexpensive hardware-store propane tanks on the creek bank
behind the house, and then dispose of them. I'm thinking outside
the box, outside the house
Linda, I can sympathize with your dilemma, which is similar to mine.
Here’s what I did – bought a big old second-hand propane grill (one
with shelves on both sides), filled it with tufa chunks, and set my
soldering equipment on various soldering surfaces on top of the iron
grill. The grill top comes down over all this, and with a black
plastic grill cover over it, it just looks like anybody’s (somewhat
shabby) grill.
I bought a big plastic garbage can with one of those “lock” tops (so
the wind could never blow it off), put a few bricks in the bottom,
and set my acetylene tank & hoses in there. It’s right near the
grill. I also bought one of those Rubbermaid tall plastic cupboards
to store miscellaneous things (this actually can be locked). It fit
in a little alcove behind our house, near the grill.
This arrangement works reasonably well because we live in a safe
neighborhood. The drawbacks are that it is nearly impossible to work
in the winter weather, the rain, or when wind speed is over 15 mph.
It is also tedious bringing the things to solder, up and down from
the basement where the rest of all my “stuff” is. But, as you say,
solderless connections are limiting (although, working on those
showed me that there is more scope there than I thought).
As for things like earring backs, if you use low-temperature solders
like Tix, it will melt with a heat gun (which will also char your
wooden bench top if you don’t protect it) or with a candle flame,
both which I assume you could use indoors. Someone just gave me one
of those Radioshack Cold Heat guns, but my early experiments with
using it with Tix are not very encouraging.
All the best! I’d love to know what works for you.