On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:57:00 -0400, Tony
wrote:

jake wrote:
Will a Home Depot propane Bernzomatic produce enough heat to remove a
3/4 sleeve copper fitting (my main shutoff valve) ?

Have verified the lines are copper and purchased a pressure collar type
fitting for replacement shutoff valve

Picture of line and new replacement part at
http://i41.tinypic.com/33jjo8i.jpg

Need to produce enough heat to be able to remove the old collars off the
main pipe

Besides all the other good advice, a new, run of the mill Bernzomatic
torch only puts out about half the heat of the older ones. So if you do
this, I wouldn't count on the cheapest Bernzo to do the job. The better
ones do get a bit expensive. And as far as the bread to stop the pipe
dripping, they now sell stuff made for that purpose. I think it's
something close to the corn starch packing peanuts.
The Bernzo "turbo torch" is the cat's meow - and particularly when
running MAPP Gas