Butane torch for stripping/tinning magent wire

[michael taylor-3]

I just tried my "Solder-It" brand Butane Torch (the flaming kind, not
a flashlight) for stripping the insulation and tinning magnet wire. It
burned through the insulation quickly and easily, of course at 1300C
(a warm 2500F) that is not too surprising. I would recommend it to
anyone who has trouble with stripping/tinning magnet wire for their
toroids.

The model I picked up was roughly 5 inches tall Solder-It PT-200 from
Canadian Tire, but there is smaller (~3 inches tall) cheaper model
called Turbo-Lite that appears to works as well just with a smaller
tank. The features that sold me on getting one was the hands-free use
and the electronic ignition.

 <http://www.solder-it.com/pt200.asp>
 <http://www.solder-it.com/at2056.asp>

They appear to be ham owned too.
  <http://www.solder-it.com/qsls_on_the_web.htm>

No affiliation with Solder-It other than a happy customer.

-Michael Taylor
 VE3TIX
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[zeke7237]

I'm no metallurgist, but I'd do some testing to make sure that temp
doesn't make the copper weird and brittle. Seems to me that I've had
magnet wire go brittle in the flame of a butane lighter. Wiggle around
a stripped piece and make sure it doesn't snap off easily ..

73 de w1rt/john

On 4/15/06, michael taylor <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I just tried my "Solder-It" brand Butane Torch (the flaming kind, not
> a flashlight) for stripping the insulation and tinning magnet wire. It
> burned through the insulation quickly and easily, of course at 1300C
> (a warm 2500F) that is not too surprising. I would recommend it to
> anyone who has trouble with stripping/tinning magnet wire for their
> toroids.
>
> The model I picked up was roughly 5 inches tall Solder-It PT-200 from
> Canadian Tire, but there is smaller (~3 inches tall) cheaper model
> called Turbo-Lite that appears to works as well just with a smaller
> tank. The features that sold me on getting one was the hands-free use
> and the electronic ignition.
>
>  <http://www.solder-it.com/pt200.asp>
>  <http://www.solder-it.com/at2056.asp>
>
> They appear to be ham owned too.
>   <http://www.solder-it.com/qsls_on_the_web.htm>
>
> No affiliation with Solder-It other than a happy customer.
>
> -Michael Taylor
>  VE3TIX
> _______________________________________________
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> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>

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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

John, W1RT wrote:

I'm no metallurgist, but I'd do some testing to make sure that temp doesn't
make the copper weird and brittle. Seems to me that I've had magnet wire go
brittle in the flame of a butane lighter. Wiggle around a stripped piece and
make sure it doesn't snap off easily ..

--------------------

Excellent point. I have seen copper crystallize, apparently from heat.

Something that I've noticed that keeps me from cooking the wires with too
hot a flame is that the copper will oxidize so badly it's very hard to get
it to take solder. I've had to scrape the oxidation off of copper that had
been really hot in order to tin it using rosin flux!

That's sort of going around in circles if the objective was to tin enameled
wire!

The Number 1 Trick I've found that lets me heat-strip my toroid wires
quickly and easily is to first scrape to the wire. I just scrape it along
the length once. Normally I use a small blade screwdriver. I trap the wire
between the screwdriver blade and the bench top and, starting from the core
or wherever I want to start stripping, drag the blade to the end to take of
one strip of enamel.

Then I go ahead with the solder blob method. I find that the bit of bare
wire lets the wire heat a lot faster so it burns off the enamel from the
inside as much as the solder blob does from the outside...and there's that
much less enamel to burn <G>.

Ron AC7AC

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[Peter Zenker]

 

> I'm no metallurgist, but I'd do some testing to make sure
> that temp doesn't make the copper weird and brittle. Seems to
> me that I've had magnet wire go brittle in the flame of a
> butane lighter. Wiggle around a stripped piece and make sure
> it doesn't snap off easily ..
>
> 73 de w1rt/john

John,

I have worked for long time in an non iron metall laboratory.
If copper is heated to glowing temperature, it will change it´s
modification. What remains is some type of copper which will break later or
earlier. Using a butane or propan torch you there is only a very small
chance not to overheat the copper wire. In my QRPproject manuals, even in my
translation of the Elecraft manuals, I warn to use this methode of burning
away the enamel.

73 de Peter, DL2FI


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