Rekindling The Old Flame: A Look Back At Blowtorches
By Audra Heaslip
This 1949 Craftsman catalog brings us back to the days of zoot suits, the jitterbug, explosive shop tools, guiltless gasoline consumption — and the good ole’ gasoline blowtorch.
Even before the modern technology of propane and butane cartridges, amateurs as well as professionals commonly used blowtorches for stubborn household problems like thawing frozen pipes, loosening jammed bolts, and even detecting freon leaks (due to the changing color of the flame). Plumbers used the torches to liquefy lead for sealing pipe joints, electricians used them for soldering wires, and painters for stripping paint from walls.
To operate these blowtorches, you fill the fuel tank about 3/4 full of gasoline, and then seal the fuel valves. A hand pump pressurizes the air, sending the fuel up a wick tube to the burner head. The wick tube contains a cotton wick about eight inches long, with half of it soaked in the fuel and the rest leading up to the burner.
Just past the wick tube, a screen filters out impurities before the fuel is burned. Finally, an evaporation chamber on the bottom of the blowtorch head builds pressure between the wick and the burner head. The fuel escapes through the orifice in the burner head, producing a very hot, blue flame and the familiar roar of the blowtorch.
If you’re worried about frozen pipes this winter, you can buy the antique Craftsman blowtorch pictured above for about $10 on eBay — the same price as in 1949. For the same (adjusted) price as back then, you can even fill it up with gasoline — just like the good old days.
Information on Blowtorches [Zangobob's Blowtorch Heaven]
Antique Craftsman Catalogs [Rose Antique Tools]
January 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I’ve got one just like the picture. Never had the nerve to fire it up…
January 7th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
My dad took a gasoline blowtorch and made it into a lamp. For some reason, I thought my mom made him get rid of it at some point. You can imagine my relief when I saw it in the living room the last time I visited. That lamp is my birthright.
January 7th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I have a couple of them like the ones in the pictures. One of them leaks, but the other one is intact, and I’ve fired it up a few times.
It’s important to prime this much like you would a white gas stove; put some gas into the primer pan (opening and closing the valve after pressurizing is enough), light it, and let it burn down.
If you don’t preheat it like this, it becomes more of a gas squirt gun/mini flamethrower rather than a torch. Kind of neat looking, but not very useful or safe.
Incidentally, the “hook” on the top and the groove on the top front of the barrel was so you could lie a soldering iron on top. The old-style irons were basically just a shaped metal rod with a pointed tip on one end and a handle on the other. The handle would keep it from slipping through the upper ring, and the tip would sit nicely in the flame.
–TMIB
January 7th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Under no circumstances use a blowtorch to look for freon leaks. Combusting freon releases phosgene gas, which is quite toxic and at one time was a chemical weapon. Buy an electronic sniffer if you ever need to do this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene
Jon
January 7th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Looks like the same basic principle as our old Svea 123 stove http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svea_123 which you more or less set on fire before using.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Gasoline stoves are still the only good option for cooking in extreme cold - where mild-weather propane stoves will not work (propane will not vaporize at low temperatures) and even propane-butane mix is a problem. As hinted at above, there is a need to get the generator tube warm by priming (heating) with either some raw gas or special primer paste. This insures that the presuurized gasoline from the tank is vaporized (not droplets) before it hits the business end of the stove or torch. Otherwise the device will sputter and flare up. At extremely low temperatures (55 below and less) the priming is sometimes done with ether (not for the faint-hearted or at higher temps where ether is much too volatile). Like all pressurized devices, you need to be aware of the inside (tank) pressure versus atmospheric pressure. Stoves that have been pumped up at sea level - will be over-pressurized if taken to high altitude (as in climbing.)
January 8th, 2008 at 11:09 am
[...] Turns out Craftsman beat us to the pyrotechnic punch, according to that 1949 gasoline blowtorch ad posted on Toolmonger. [...]
January 8th, 2008 at 11:26 am
[...] Turns out Craftsman beat us to the pyrotechnic punch, according to that 1949 gasoline blowtorch ad posted on Toolmonger. [...]
January 30th, 2008 at 9:33 am
We had one of these back on the farm (late 60s, early 70s) that we used all the time, when you REALLY needed something heated up. The propane torch just didn’t have the right stuff. We fueled it with “white gas” (no additives and was unleaded) that used to be really cheap, of course during the so-called “gas wars” among competing stations gasoline would get down to 25 cents/gallon anyway. tmib is correct you have to get it pre heated or keep it pointed well away from anything you value! It’s a wonder we never burned down the old garage, with the gas and diesel storage tanks next to it, various fuel burning torches, heaters, electric welders and my favorite, the arc torch! Good times….. good times.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:23 am
The newsletter group “Blow Torch Association of America” BTCA exists to make collecting torches more enjoyable. The newsletter “The Torch” is published three times a year. For information about this group and regardingt the 500 page book “Vintage Blowtorches” by Carr, Smith and Stubbs, contact Ron Carr at BTCA@COX.NET.
Graham Stubbs
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Nothing scary about these old torches if you follow commons sence safety rules. They must be respected, cleaned and kept in good order for safe use.
I have several all different and best suited to different aplications.
Propane is instant heat and that is its advantage.
Gasoline is ( Naphtha used in some ) is cheap, much cheaper than propane these days. And the heat well there is a lot more of it if you need it lol.
My two most commonly used torches are a Preway 45, small light and very well behaved. And my other is a C&L 308 heavy but ready to use in under 30 seconds with its secondary preheat burner.