Haha I was thinking just the other day that we needed a proper torch thread here on FC, and was meaning to start one. Lot's of good info about, but spread between several vape specific threads.
What flame size are you looking for OP? That was the difficulty in my recent purchase as there's not much information given about the size of the flames, and I wanted BIG.
I was looking to buy another torch having stood on my
Honest Torch and cracked it and broken the flame lock switch.
This was a pretty reliable torch, until I stood on it, and really great value but it didn't quite have enough ooomph IMO for heating my Ti nail or pad. I just felt like I was spending too much time at it. I'm just impatient if there's a tool available that could do it quicker. So I wanted something slightly bigger.
First off I went for a huge full size bernzomatic torch with the screw on canister, but this is unwieldy beast was overkill and didn't have a sharp enough flame- instead it was a triple jet wide flame. Probably great for plumbers, but not me.
Then I considered the
Iroda PT-200, as they're apparently proper reliable tools, but that kind of looked similar in flame size to the Honest Torch. The
PT-550 looked closer to the size I wanted, but cost a good bit more than I wanted to pay. I think they are both a much more reasonable price in the US market place.
I ended up going with a
Master Class Chefs torch, and it kicks arse.
It's seriously awesome. Just what I was looking for. The flame is twice as fierce as that on the Honest, and the tank is pretty huge and seems to last for ages, much to my surprise. feels well made, comes with a base, was reasonable prices, and meets British safety standards (which I figured was worthwhile with a large-ish tankful of highly flammable gas)
I've even just done a little comparison video of the size of the flame with the Honest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi1IoIRmAp4
I can recommend this upgrade in flame size to anyone else impatient when heating their nail/pad. With this it takes just seconds. I can also see this being good for some of the retained heat type vapes (Supreme, Gnome, Vapocane etc), but far to big to be used with and of the direct flame inhalation vapes. Not sure if all brulee torches are this sized flame though.
But it's pretty chunky- definitely just a home torch. I also need something more portable- ideally something that will fit in my Axe Pack along with my mini bubbler. I've ordered
this off DX, but I think it'll be too big.
I'm thinking this
pen style torch might be better, but I've a feeling there's going to be some compromise on the size of the flame. It says up to 45mm - is that just the central blue bit do you think? It looks a fair nozzle size- similar to the Honest workshop torch above maybe.
So, that's my torch buying saga. Spilled my guts there hehe