Smitty Two wrote:
In ,
Mark wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
In ,
wrote:


Geeezus, all this waffle - one huge thread to avoid buying a heat gun!
A cheap one will do, fifteen quid, that`s twenty bucks, and you can use
it for other stuff like paint stripping.
Why **** about with hairdryers, dodgy modified soldering irons or gas
lighters when you can get the proper tool for so little money?

Ron(UK)

Yeah, thanks for saying that, Ron. A room full of so-called
professionals and they're all cobbing together makeshift tools. I've got
three different heat guns at work, and they're all in the over $100
range. For a homeowner who uses shrink tubing once per year, I can see
the toaster or bic lighter approach, but for someone who makes money
with his tools, ****, buy the damn tool already.

It's funny - I much prefer a butane lighter over an electric heat-gun.
It takes very little practice to get it right, it's quicker, easier to
carry, and you don't have to go looking for places to plug in the heat
gun back behind the equipment racks.

Well, each to his own. We do production work, so I'm not sure the
lighter would be appropriate for doing 400 pcs. of shrink at one
setting. It's nice to set the gun on its built-in flat back, nozzle
pointing straight up, and use it hands-free for extended periods.
Another drawback I see to the lighter is, how do you get the flame to
point down when you're working inside a chassis?

And there you have it. I work with cabling in a TV station, requiring no
more than a dozen pieces done at any given time, and you work with small
wiring inside a chassis on an assembly line, doing hundreds. Each
function has its own equipment needs.

But a butane lighter - especially the "jet" types that behave like tiny
brazing torches - will flame downward well enough, unless they're built
to draw fuel only while upright.

I removed the "Hot air" tip from a butane soldering iron once, and found
it even faster than the lighter, but it required more care in use. If
one tipped it the wrong way, the flame would flare due to it drawing
liquid instead of gas butane.