--0-162239379-1114287379=:55958
My husband, being a contractor, has several types of gas ( handheld tanks ) for soldering and whatever. I remember MAP gas is one of them. What kind of gas is in your torch? It sounds like you had to work hard to try to make it work, when the idea of using it is to make the work less. Thanks, Tony.
Sue, in rainy No. Calif. - this is too much rain - not our regular weather pattern for sure!
Tony and Moira Ryan
One of the larger size torches would probably work. I gather that large,
tractor-mounted ones work well in farm scale use. I can only say that
our experience with one of the small hand ones (they look a bit like a
walking stick, with a little burner at the end of the long "leg" and a
screw-on disposable canister of gas on the short "leg") was not good.
Ours is "Primus" brand. They are Swedish, but used all over the world I
think, so you probably know them. I could send you a photo of it, if you
are sufficiently interested. The gas canisters are 12.5 oz capacity.
We have a single persistent - quite ordinary! - weed that grows in a
large crack in the pavement on our frontage, and I have burned that one
several times, but it only discourages the top growth, it soon grows
back. The other problem is that - with the rather rapid draw-off of gas
from the quite small canister - the result is a rapid cooling of the
remaining liquid in the can, and after a relatively short time, the
flame starts to run short of fuel (because it cannot evaporate fast
enough when cold) and goes out. The intervals that it will work for, get
shorter and shorter as the canister runs down, too! I used to use two
cans of gas at a time, unscrewing the cold one, and screwing on the
spare, but this was a bit of a drag, and the frequent cost of canisters
was a noticeable factor.
If you were able to get a somewhat larger burner kit, with a larger
refillable bottle of gas, this would probably work better. Tony
--0-162239379-1114287379=:55958My husband, being a contractor, has several types of gas ( handheld tanks ) for soldering and whatever. I remember MAP gas is one of them. What kind of gas is in your torch? It sounds like you had to work hard to try to make it work, when the idea of using it is to make the work less. Thanks, Tony.Sue, in rainy No. Calif. - this is too much rain - not our regular weather pattern for sure!
Tony and Moira Ryan <tomory@XTRA.CO.NZ> wrote:
One of the larger size torches would probably work. I gather that large,
tractor-mounted ones work well in farm scale use. I can only say that
our experience with one of the small hand ones (they look a bit like a
walking stick, with a little burner at the end of the long "leg" and a
screw-on disposable canister of gas on the short "leg") was not good.
Ours is "Primus" brand. They are Swedish, but used all over the world I
think, so you probably know them. I could send you a photo of it, if you
are sufficiently interested. The gas canisters are 12.5 oz capacity.
We have a single persistent - quite ordinary! - weed that grows in a
large crack in the pavement on our frontage, and I have burned that one
several times, but it only discourages the top growth, it soon
grows
back. The other problem is that - with the rather rapid draw-off of gas
from the quite small canister - the result is a rapid cooling of the
remaining liquid in the can, and after a relatively short time, the
flame starts to run short of fuel (because it cannot evaporate fast
enough when cold) and goes out. The intervals that it will work for, get
shorter and shorter as the canister runs down, too! I used to use two
cans of gas at a time, unscrewing the cold one, and screwing on the
spare, but this was a bit of a drag, and the frequent cost of canisters
was a noticeable factor.
If you were able to get a somewhat larger burner kit, with a larger
refillable bottle of gas, this would probably work better. Tony
--0-162239379-1114287379=:55958--
Sue Jennings wrote:
> Tony, I sure feel sorry for the horse! Why wouldn't the torch work well
> for bermuda grass or nut grass? If you did it several times, it seems
> like it would work - I am so disappointed. Sue
One of the larger size torches would probably work. I gather that large,
tractor-mounted ones work well in farm scale use. I can only say that
our experience with one of the small hand ones (they look a bit like a
walking stick, with a little burner at the end of the long "leg" and a
screw-on disposable canister of gas on the short "leg") was not good.
Ours is "Primus" brand. They are Swedish, but used all over the world I
think, so you probably know them. I could send you a photo of it, if you
are sufficiently interested. The gas canisters are 12.5 oz capacity.
We have a single persistent - quite ordinary! - weed that grows in a
large crack in the pavement on our frontage, and I have burned that one
several times, but it only discourages the top growth, it soon grows
back. The other problem is that - with the rather rapid draw-off of gas
from the quite small canister - the result is a rapid cooling of the
remaining liquid in the can, and after a relatively short time, the
flame starts to run short of fuel (because it cannot evaporate fast
enough when cold) and goes out. The intervals that it will work for, get
shorter and shorter as the canister runs down, too! I used to use two
cans of gas at a time, unscrewing the cold one, and screwing on the
spare, but this was a bit of a drag, and the frequent cost of canisters
was a noticeable factor.
If you were able to get a somewhat larger burner kit, with a larger
refillable bottle of gas, this would probably work better.
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES AND DIAGRAMS ADDED 20/Feb/2005
Sue Jennings wrote:
> My husband, being a contractor, has several types of gas ( handheld
> tanks ) for soldering and whatever. I remember MAP gas is one of
> them. What kind of gas is in your torch?
Butane, or butane/propane mixtures, according to the particular
cartridge we get.
> It sounds like you had to work hard to try to make it work, when the
> idea of using it is to make the work less. Thanks, Tony.
Yeah, you're right! We have not found it to be the useful garden tool we
had hoped it would be. Had larger cartridges - or some kind of
refillable ones to reduce the cost - been available, this might have
rendered it more useful, but as it is, it has been relegated to a hook
at the back of the garage and is unlikely to be put back into use!
I imagine that the old-fashioned plumber's kerosene-powered "blow-torch"
would probably do at least as good a job, and would be cheaper to fuel.
> Sue, in rainy No. Calif. - this is too much rain - not our regular
> weather pattern for sure!
Right now, we are just getting our first "winter southerly" of the year.
We get these after a strong Cold Front has passed over, dragging a mass
of cold wet Polar air across the Southern Ocean (Antarctica is only 3000
kms south of us) to our shores, resulting in strong (often 100 kph or
more) winds with short but heavy showers of icy rain, yet periods of
bright but cool sunshine between the showers. This pattern shows up very
clearly as a characteristic pattern in satellite pictures of our weather
- as a polka-dotted pattern of white dots (the rain clouds) on a dark
ground.
We had just over 0.6 inch of rain overnight last night, and will
probably get a similar amount in the current 24 hours, although today
has been cold but mostly sunny so far.....
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES AND DIAGRAMS ADDED 20/Feb/2005
