Small Torch Madmodded

[Bernd]

Sometimes you'll need a small torch to do some soldering. I will need one for my up coming project.

I had bought one of these butane torches at HF. It worked once and gave up. I figured it had a nice little tip on it it be a shame to throw it away.



Well I took it a part and made one part, reassembled with a larger tank and hose and I've got a nice little torch for some soldering.



Here's the result after assembly.



All I made was the longer aluminum part in the middle picture. Bored out the one end to fit the small aluminum part with the O-rings. The other end I turned to about .2" the size of the hose ID and put a small barb on it to hold the hose on. It's barely visable in the pic.

Now all I need to do is try it out.

Bernd

[CrewCab]

Bernd, did you find put why the original set up gave up  ............. not trying to be a smarty pants, just interested cos' I have a small blowlamp with a seal problem that I refuse to throw away as I'm sure there's a much better tool hiding inside 

CC

[Bernd]

CC,

The only thing I can think of that a piece of dirt got into the very small hole were the flame comes out. Once I had it apart I blew air through the opposite way and it seemed to have cleared it out. The other thing that broke was were you fill the tank. The small pipe got pushed into the tank. It rattled around so I had to cut it in half and see what made the whole thing tick. For only a little over $4 USD I figgured what the heck.

Bernd

[sbwhart]

Ho I do like that one Bernd  I've got one of those torches not had much success with it I can can see a little project developing her.

Thanks fro showing

Stew

[CrewCab]

Sounds about right Bernd ......... thanks for that mate 

CC

[Brass_Machine]

That is a seriously cool mod. I got 5 of those of ebay for $0.99... only one worked for any amount of time. Hmmmmm..... 

Great job Bernd

Eric

[Bernd]

Thanks guys.

Looks like I'll need to take some closer shots of the piece I made and a bit more explination.

Bernd

[J. Tranter]

I bought the same one a while back and it did the exact same thing ,worked only once.
No big deal, the reason I bought it any way was for the fill valve for another project.
If you could show a closer picture that would be great.
John T.

[Bernd]

John,

A word of caution. The fill valve on my broke. Below are three pics of the fill valve parts.

First pic are the individual parts. starting at the left is the part that screws in and holds the whole fill valve. Next is the tube that moves to let the gas in from the fill bottle. Next is the spring that pushes the fill tube closed once you remove the fill bottle. The last part on the right is a cup that holds the spring and fill tube in the part that screws the whole assembly into the tank.



The point of the mechanical pencil is pointing to the crack in the side of the threaded part.



Here's a close up view of the threaded part that is cracked. The cup part is pushed into it.



This the reason I think that it only worked once. The threaded part could have been craked to begin with not sealing the tank tight. The gas would slowly leak out.

Just before I cut the whole thing apart I wanted to try one more time to fill it. When I pushed the fill bottle down on the valve it gave way and I was sprayed with the butane. I believe this fill valve to be a danger. I won't use it for anything else.

This has lead me to two conclusions as to why mine didn't work. It was either a deffective fill valve or a piece of dirt in the jet or both.

I'll take some pictures and a write up of what i did to change it over to use a propane tank in the next couple of days.

Regards,
Bernd

[shred]

FWIW, the 'jet' in those is merely a tiny hole punched in a piece of metal foil which itself is sandwiched between the burner and feed tube.  Do not unscrew the ribbed brass burner bit from the thin brass tube and expect it to work again.  I tried twice  

I did have decent luck reusing the filler valves though-- used one on my little live-steam locomotive's gas tank and it's done well.  I did inspect it closely first.

[Bernd]

Here's a quick "what I did" post.

If you take a close look at the first picture of the torch you'll notice that on the brass tip there is a small rivet on the knurled part. I removed that using a pair of side cutters. Don't cut it just grip it with the cutters and pull it out. Once removed this will allow you to unscrrew the whole brass tip. Next I used a saw and cut approimatley 5/8" back on the tip end. Then I put the cut off part in the lathe and very gently took off a few thou at a time. I thought I was going to hit threads but instead hit the O-ring. The tube is assembled with two aluminum plugs with O-rings on them. They are held together with some kind of adhesive. Here's a pic of the nozzel end of the part turned down to the O-ring.



I then made the part you use to hold the torch and were you connect the hose to from the propane tank. On one end I turned a spigot with a hose barb. The other I bored out so the part the nozzel screws onto would have an interference fit. Fuzzy pic below.



I put a drop of Loctite on the part and pushed it into the bore. Connected the hose and screwed on the nozzel and lite her up. Worked just fine.

If you make one you might want to make a longer handle because it gets a bit warm after a few minuets. Oh and you need to drill a hole down the center for the gas to go from the bottle to the nozzel. About 1/8" or bigger will work just fine. Don't go to big or you'll drill off the tail end were the hose connects to.

Regards,
Bernd