Gas Blowtorches

[CabengParticipant @cabeng]

Ian: from the smell of it, this one's paraffing powered, but I've never had the courage to fire it up!

Why Sievert claimed to have no record of it is beyond me. I never considered it to be rare, you have confirmed that. But I've never seen another one.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Ian,

I collect Camping Stoves, Primus, Optimus etc and I've found that if the tanks are over filled they will prime the jet pipe and will create a large fire ball.

Martin P

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

When I was at school we borrowed a Primus stove for a camping trip.

After being enveloped by a frieball (put out with wet socks) the soft solder meted and the legs fell off.

My mate claimed he soldered it back together before returning it…

Neil

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Mmmn – in terms of living dangerously – I think the petrol fuelled stoves the Army once used would come close to the top of my list.

In my "youth" I served in BAOR (Germany) and we used to regularly live in the woods for three weeks or so at a time (and drive around at night with no lights on our trucks)… but the one time I used to make myself really scarce was when the Cook lit the stove – I saw one "backfire" once (not sure that's quite the right description) and the squaddie involved was very lucky to get only minor burns.

Long time ago of course. We were "Blue" forces back then and were up on the northern plains expecting "Orange" forces to come swarming over the boarder. In "Tank" terms we were outnumbered about 20 to 1 if I recall correctly. Theirs old but still lethal – ours better but much fewer.

Thought all that nonsense was well behind us but apparently not.

IanT

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Hello IanT, I also was on Luneburg Heath with BAOR in my younger days. We camped in the woods near Belsen. One large truck being driven at night with no lights hit a large boulder which took out the bottom of sump or gearbox. Saw lots of big army equipment like Chieftains and mobile guns – large gun on a tank type chassis (“Abbots”?). Loads of scout cars, huge very noisy APCs. I went over there on the Sir Tristram to Bremerhaven which looked as though the Americans had taken the port over.
I saw petrol blowlamps set up in a hole with the flame roaring along a trench covered with grills on which the cooks pots stood.
John.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

IanT, don't you know, those petrol stoves were part of the armourment system, you could blow up a building with one of those.

My blow lamp is/was a self priming type, it has no pump, the paraffin/kerosene ones require a pump to pressurize them.

Yes the soldering iron is a paraffin/kerosene burner, and until LPG came along they were great. For soldering I'v got 4 or 5 electric irons ranging from 9W to 175W(including dads 65 W Solon from about 1935), but if I really want to do some soldering with an iron, I have a number of irons about 1kg to heat on the fire, or with the torch, don't like getting the flames too close to some work.

Ian S C

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Ian S C,

I bought a job lot of copper soldering irons of various sizes, 30 +, sorted out the spares and sold them on and those I kept I use regularly for soldering my engine fuel tanks together, greater control and your not chasing the solder around the job with a flame.

Martin P

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Agreed Martin, I'v used them on full size petrol tanks, soldering in the inlet assembly on the Willys Jeeps I help restore.

Ian S C

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