Old Gasoline Soldering Iron

Rollie NE PA

Well-known Member
Found this while going thru things.
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I found some info online. It will burn for one hour at a cost of 1/4 of a cent. A news paper in Spokane was offering them for free with a 3 year subscription.
 
I don't think gas goes into that ,but it sits on top of the gas torch in a holding fork to be heated up. A guy in the next town at the feed and grain store has quite a collection of these on display .Although the name is telling me I'm probably wrong and this one is self contained.Is there a filler cap on it ?
 
I just dug out the directions.
To charge, unscrew and take off the fiber handle.
Fill the tube with gasoline.
Screw on the filling cap tightly and replace the fiber handle.

Stand iron on end and fill the priming cup full of denatured alcohol or gasoline and light. When it is burned out, immediately open valve and touch lighted match to large holes under copper point. The vapor in the tube will ignight causing a strong hissing noise which indicates the iron is burning well.

WOW! Sounds like a finger burner.
 
After seeing the directions, I'll stand by my earlier post.

When everything is working right, and you do it right, they're probably fine. But what if you let the primer cup and tube get too cool, while you try to get your old Zippo lighter to work, and you get liquid gas instead of vapor out the tube? Bigggggg problem. . .
 
Petrogen gasoline cutting torches claim they are safe because if they get a leak it will be liquid gasoline and not vapor. The vapor burns, not the liquid.
 
That's a nice find. I'd use it for display only.

I remember an old guy in our neighborhood who had a gasoline blowtorch. He always prefaced lighting it with these words, "Now step back boys!" His torch was definitely for outdoor use only, and not for the faint of heart.
 
You never used the flame to heat the gas tank! You used the flame to heat a solding copper than turned and took a step or two to the tank and transfered the heat from the copper to the tank and sweater the patch on the tank. Back in the '60's I watched a blacksmith do this. He kept two coppers heating in the fire while using a third copper apply heat to whatever he was solding. Armand
 
I'm still using my gasoline blow torches and would love to get an even bigger one than the ones I have. Yeah, you have to learn to use them, but just as with anything hot or with moving parts (buzz saws, chain saws) they really aren't at all "dangerous" once you figure them out.

My oxy/acetylene tanks are currently empty. I figure it'll cost me $150-175.00, which I don;t currently have, to get them exchanged. I needed to braze some things together the other day. Propane would just barely melt the braze, couldn't get good flow. Got out the gasoline Clayton-Lambert and had it done in a few minutes on maybe a quarter cup of gasoline.

To each their own.

BTW, you want scary? Stop around some evening and I'll touch off my gasoline plumbers furnace. A blue flame 3 feet high and 4" across! Very impressive in the dark. Roars like a small jet engine! :shock:
 

My dad had a couple of torches like the one on the left except they did not have the hood like part.
The C hook on top and the notch at the end of the burner are for holding a soldering copter.
I think you should use "white gas" ,Coleman fuel, today. Just put some in the tank, pump it up, then fill the little reservoir/tub under the burner, and light the gas in the tub. When that gas is almost burned up slowly open the valve, it should light.

Dusty
 
Dusty,
I remember my Dad using one of these years ago
when I was a kid.
Exactly as you say, pump it up, let some gas into
the trough, light it and when the barrel is hot
turn on the gas again and you will have a nice
blue flame coming out of the "blowtorch". Just
think of how many of these were used "back in the
day" with nary a single mishap!
I worked in a prison where one of the inmates
smuggled one of the copper soldering irons out of
one of the shops and used it to stab another
inmate. He took off the wooden handle, sharpened
that end and stuck it into the other guy's back.
The copper end was now the handle with lots of
weight to propel the "shiv"!
I'll never forget seeing that copper soldering
iron sticking out of the inmate's back!
Interestingly, The victim survived with little
injury as the weapon missed anything vital.
 
(quoted from post at 03:10:05 03/17/13) Why mess around with a gasoline soldering iron when you can get a gasoline blow torch.

I got one like the one on the left from dads garage years ago but I have never been able to find the guts to fire it up and see if it works.

We used one all the time back on the farm. Took awhile to get it going but it really threw out the heat. Would go to the neighborhood Sohio station (remember that name?) and get "white gas" I presume it was just uncolored, unleaded gasoline. When that torch didn't work we broke out the arc torch, now that was a hot one!
 

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