Just a note to recommend the Solder-It BT-50 portable butane soldering iron.
There have just been too many outdoor projects this fall requiring a
soldering iron and I got tired of dragging extension cords around.
The BT-50 is inexpensive and works extremely well. It comes with a soldering
head, pencil tip and a flame head. I bought three additional chisel-point
tips, in sizes up to 7mm(!) and a hot air blower (good for heat shrink
tubing.) At full blast, I measured the pencil tip temperature at 450F within
a few seconds of turn on. It got up to 735F within a minute or so. The 7mm
chisel tip made it to 800F. Design, construction and workmanship are
excellent.
The best part of my experience was the fine customer service provided by the
company. My flame head fit a little too tightly over the nozzle (it could
have been widened with a screwdriver but I didn't realize that), and the
nozzle pulled out of the tool when I tried to pull off the flame head. This
permanently disabled the tool. I sent an e-mail reporting this to Fred Doob
that night and decided to leave a message on his answering machine. He
actually answered at 10 PM EST and I was able to describe the problem to
him. He shipped a replacement BT-50 and flame head Priority mail the next
day, with a prepaid return envelope for the old parts. All at Solder-It's
expense. Two days later I'm in business. Now that's prompt and convenient
service. Other manufacturers take note!
Check it out at http://www.solder-it.com/ (I'm not affiliated in any way
with Solder-It.)
73, Dick, WC1M
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