Hi -
I do have experience with soldering with butane torches and they’re
great torches for travel and at home! I’ve soldered with
oxy/acetylene and oxy/propane or natural gas full time for 21 years,
but since I’ve started teaching jewelry classes 8 years ago, I’ve
used accessible and affordable butane torches for my students and
traveling.
I also have a book on soldering
(http://www.kalmbachstore.com/64063.html) and DVD on soldering
(http://www.kalmbachstore.com/15074.html ) that have just been
released by Kalmbach, featuring only butane torches for home
friendly jewelry work.
Most of classwork is primarily with sterling, but these torches
produce plenty of heat for soldering, and in fact, remind me of
soldering in college with larger nozzle natural gas torches we had
at the benches. The bigger flames cover more surface area and make it
easier to evenly heat the metal. Even with my oxy/propane torch
nearby, I catch myself picking up a butane torch for some jobs! One
fun thing you can do too is you can use two butane torches (one in
each hand) to heat larger pieces or the top and bottom of something
on a soldering tripod at the same time! Keep the flames on the metal
and away from the other torch and yourself.
There are small torches that can work up to an 1x1" piece or larger,
depending on gauge, and larger handheld butane torches with bigger
flames that can heat larger projects very efficiently (these have a
thick muzzle-like nozzle). The flames on both are around 2700
degrees, and very clean. They’re easy to pick up and quickly light,
refuel and store, making them ideal for at home. I’ve used them with
Handy paste flux, self-pickling flux, Firescoff, and Pripps. I’ve
used them to fuse, anneal and reticulate. They work with the same
techniques and principles as the hotter oxy mix torches, but just a
little more slowly and with more margin of error for avoiding
melting.
Any downsides? Sure, they’re cheaper torches, so you can get one
that is more ornery to light or has a faulty ignitor. Or they can get
air bubbles in the fuel line that will sputter and expand the flame,
but these will usually disappear quickly and generally happen if you
use the torch too quickly after refueling. Otherwise, the only other
downside is that without performing some fun torch maneuvers like
using two, you can find yourself a little more limited in the size
and thickness of the pieces you can work on. But they’re easy to
empty and pack in a suitcase - I’ve taken mine all the way to
Anchorage, Alaska in my checked bags.
Specifically for gold, I’ve done a little bit with the butane. My
apprentice training is still inside my brain, I guess, because when I
work on gold I automatically reach for my oxy/propane torch. My
students can’t afford to work with gold - hell, with silver rocketing
up to $30 it’s getting very interesting to price materials - so it’s
not something we do in the classroom. But when I did, I was able to
solder and keep the gold just as clean as my silver with proper
distribution of heat and use of flux.
Hope this was helpful. Feel free to email me if you have more
questions.
Joe Silvera