Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielI
Any other specific recommendations for butane ones? I was surprised to find nothing on CF (many posters say they use them, few say a favorite brand).
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I use solder and heat shrink, a lot. I have had any number of butane torches,
propane torches, heat
guns, etc for shrinking heat shrink and offer this
advice based on my experience.
Any of the flame-based ones will
work if used gently and carefully. They are all too hot and are hard to control.
Wind makes this worse. You can also, for that matter, use matches, or a zippo lighter, or a cigarette lighter, or a candle lighter. I do not find that fancy torches are an improvment over
cheap lighters. In general they are worse because they put out more heat, and they still blow out.
I have had inexpensive hardware-store heat
guns. They
work much better than flame but require 120v. I have occasionally used industrial 120v heat guns that have much better temperature control that work even better.
At present I have a Milwaukee M18 battery operated heat gun which works extremely well. I have other tools that use this battery system. Runtime per battery pack is long enough not to be a major concern for heat shrink though it could become a nuisance with larger jobs e.g. removing
paint or caulk from a large area. There are chargers for this system that will operate from 12v DC. I would recommend this tool, and similar competing products, as the absence of a cord is a major advantage and eliminates the need for flame-based alternatives.