Sorry for the late reply but I just got back from vacation.
So I have had the need to perform soldering using a butane powered soldering iron, wasn't ideal but it did work quite well. Here was the scenario, 250' in the air on a Meteorological tower soldering a four conductor connector for an RTD onto the cable going down the tower, a 10Knot wind at 50 deg.F blowing off of the ocean 400 feet below. No AC power available, the cordless irons ran out of battery before the joint was hot enough to get good wetting. We tried a 100 watt battery operated gun and that also didn't work very well tip was the size of a pencil. So out comes my butane solder torch with the medium size tip, it worked amazingly well the hard part was getting it lit, the wind kept blowing out the lighter. We used a large paper cup as a wind screen, poked the connector in the bottom. Soldering with gloves on is not easy.
I use the small butane torch quite a bit for sliver soldering, I think the melt is around 1200 deg., but I don't use the solder tips only the flame in that case.
Pat
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Fenner
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 10:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Butane Soldering Irons
I have a couple of these, very handy for working on my old car and odd jobs.
The problem with them for anything serious is that the tip temperature is not well controlled.
1) The heat output from the catalytic combustion heater is not calibrated; it can be set to anything. Probability is that it will end up on max, because when things don't work in soldering that's what people do.
2) the overall design is geared to a quick warm up, so there is little thermal mass, this will allow big temperature variation with more than one joint or if the work requires long heat time because of its own thermal mass.
3) The bit is a screw on type and this gives poor thermal coupling especially after some period of use.
The reason I have two, is that the first one had these problems in spades, the second I paid a lot more for. It is better, so I can solder up my old car wiring and stuff like that just fine. For circuit board work they make me nervous.
Cordless irons tend also to go for a high temp, low mass, quick warm approach.
Need to think in terms not just of temperature but the amount of heat available. A lot of heat is not the same as a high temperature.
So overall it means you would be putting a high premium on operator skill.
IT would be worth going to some trouble to avoid them.
For example low voltage irons that could run from a car battery.
Alternatively an inverter so you could use a regular iron.
Example: for my bush camping trips I just have a small inverter which generates 140W mains output. It's the size of a small apple and plugs in to car socket and cost about 50USD. Probably less in USA. Saves buying a separate charger for each piece of kit and doesn't become obsolete if I up grade anything.
So one of those with a mains extension cord could do it I think.
Regards
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gregg Owens
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 3:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Butane Soldering Irons
Since we hand solder outside of the normal manufacturing floor, our technicians are requesting to use a butane soldering iron. I have no previous experience with this type of soldering iron. With a temperature setting of 1076°F it seems rather high and potentially damaging to resulting solder connection, insulation, people, etc.
http://www.apexhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=0371030609
76
Any thoughts from experience would be most appreciated.
Gregg
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