Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Been tossing up what torch to buy for a while to start playing around with scrap and solder. I can see myself being drawn to heavier gauge plate and 6" at the end of the tunnel, so I would rather get something that will do everything from small to big. I have taken the advice of a couple of the highly experienced DIY fellas and ordering a torch from the Sievert pro range :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I'm guessing after a lot of burns and solder blobs on my hands and feet I will get the hang of it lol
Practice practice practice

Do you want to use hard or soft solder?

Might want to go bigger, like a oxy set, I looked at the 86, but my brother in law reckons not enough grunt, even the 88 is probably not up to the heavy gauge stuff unless you are soft soldering. He works with heavy gauge copper a fair bit, this is what he recommended for me when I'm ready to go bigger:

BOC MasterStart LPG Cutting & Brazing Kit Part Number : 105009

depends on how fat your wallet is champ :teasing-tease:

I would go for the oxy lpg kit if i was looking to work with 6" and thick copper
You will be there for ages trying to hard solder with anything less.
Even soft soldering will take a while to get it up to temp with a standard torch.


LPG is cheap compared to acetylene, and you can buy your own oxy bottle so you dont pay rent on bottles.

Zak Griffin wrote:Do you want to use hard or soft solder?

Want to learn a bit of both... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

TasSpirits wrote:Might want to go bigger, like a oxy set, I looked at the 86, but my brother in law reckons not enough grunt, even the 88 is probably not up to the heavy gauge stuff unless you are soft soldering. He works with heavy gauge copper a fair bit, this is what he recommended for me when I'm ready to go bigger:

BOC MasterStart LPG Cutting & Brazing Kit Part Number : 105009

Will check them out, this hobby is very addictive and can see myself setting in for the long haul so I don't mind spending a bit of dough.
I see all to often with the experienced fellas there is never just one build, there will be more :laughing-rolling:

The big green store sells gas bottes you buy and in a few years when finished you get your money back

A lot of garage sales has hoses and gauges cheep last set I got $20.00

Aussiedownunder01 wrote:The big green store sells gas bottes you buy and in a few years when finished you get your money back

Cheers buddy :handgestures-thumbupleft:

TasSpirits wrote:Might want to go bigger, like a oxy set, I looked at the 86, but my brother in law reckons not enough grunt, even the 88 is probably not up to the heavy gauge stuff unless you are soft soldering. He works with heavy gauge copper a fair bit, this is what he recommended for me when I'm ready to go bigger:

BOC MasterStart LPG Cutting & Brazing Kit Part Number : 105009

I think your totally right mate in what you say, I checked out one of these kits and they come with everything that way one purchase and your set for everything. I know $429 bucks is more expensive than the one I suggested but would be well worth it in the long run. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Im going to have a play with some 4mm plate and a oxy set tomorrow, Im planning the next build, the inlaw has no time to help, but is letting me play with some of his workshop gear so I can start to get a feel for it. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I was looking at a TS8000, but then came across this

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BERNZOMATIC- ... 3d1099a421


has anyone used one? probably cheaper on amazon, but this is the first place I saw it. i'm certainly gonna be building a 4 inch bubbler, so I want to be able to hard solder some easy flanges. worried the TS8000 might struggle on the grunt side of the world.

Problem with little oxy/acetaleyene sets they burn through the small bottles fast. I have read a few members use a lpg bottle (9kg) and an oxy bottle, and
aparently an oxy bottle can be bought from bunnings and the bottle price refunded or the bottle exchanged once empty. Used with an oxy cutting torch provides plenty heat to hard solder 4" + :handgestures-thumbupleft:

ok, so i'd need to invest in adaptors and bigger bottles once I run out of the littlies. i'm not planning on needing full on cutting capacity, so the BOC kit, although pretty, seems a bit rough at 400 bucks.

maybe i'll grab one and see how it goes.

Don't get me wrong oxy is the best of the best but if you are after a cheap alternative and you only want to soft solder try one of these lpg torches. It’s all I've used for my builds and it will soft solder 4" no prob and will hard solder 1/4" for easy flanges.

I have tradeflame pro torch similar to wooduck but bigger head and more heat, it hard solders 4in no worries. You can swap the head for a smaller one when soft soldering. Lpq is cheap compared to acetylene :handgestures-thumbupleft: