A neat little vintage soldering tower

[Equilibrium]

This belonged to a girlfriend's dad. He was a professional sheet metal man and did mostly HVAC before he retired about 30 years ago. The soldering irons are in pretty good shape although I'm told they should be filed down and re-tinned.
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I'd never seen anything like it before and was thinking there might be others out there like me.

Adding something...
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Here's a YouTube on another style of soldering furnace I found-
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[bigb]

I've seen the irons before but not the pot and cooker. I remember when I was a kid my dad had a sort of kettle that you heated lead in and poured it into hubs on cast iron sewer pipes. Not sure why we had it, he was never a plumber and wasn't really very handy anyway. In Chicagoland cast iron pipes were still being installed for years after ABS came out, did they ever let plastics into the building codes?

[Equilibrium]

Chicago is in Cook County. We're in a far north suburb in a different county. I can't answer your question. I know that our house was built about 15 years ago and has copper water pipes. That may or may not have been code at the time. Could have been our call.

[Aeronca]

This belonged to a girlfriend's dad. He was a professional sheet metal man and did mostly HVAC before he retired about 30 years ago. The soldering irons are in pretty good shape although I'm told they should be filed down and re-tinned.
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I'd never seen anything like it before and was thinking there might be others out there like me.

Adding something...
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Here's a YouTube on another style of soldering furnace I found-
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I have used the little furnaces like in the YouTube attachment. Flame coming out the front is way bigger than proper adjustment. I suspect he is running a unit designed for natural gas on propane, resulting in the huge flames-needs smaller orifices for propane. Those big old soldering coppers are outstanding for fixing gas tanks and sheet metal soldering. Need a sal ammoniac block to rub the copper against when it comes out the heat before soldering. Nice post! Thanks.

[DSW]

In Chicagoland cast iron pipes were still being installed for years after ABS came out, did they ever let plastics into the building codes?

I know about 15 years ago Philly still required cast iron with lead and oakum joints inside a building or with 10 feet of the building line. Outside the building line, you could use cast iron and rubber gaskets. No PVC / ABS plastic allowed. It wouldn't surprise me if this hasn't changed. The unions have a pretty good lock on the city and a change like this would make it a lot easier to hire nonunion plumbers.

Pretty much everywhere outside the city however almost no one uses cast iron except possibly for repairs. It's all PVC.

[FlaJoe]

Old heavy soldering irons like that are great for spot annealing hard metal, such as gun receivers where you want to drill and tap a hole for a scope mount. Shape the iron to a small flat tip that is a good fit to the receiver, then heat it red hot and put the tip to spot to be annealed and clamp it to hold it in place and then just leave it there until it cools.

ALSO FYI you're not supposed to file a soldering iron unless absolutely necessary. You lose too much metal. You're supposed to hammer them back into shape. Since they're copper it's not as hard as it sounds.

There is nothing better in the world than these old heavy irons for repairing thin sheet metal. They HOLD the heat but don't get hot enough to burn through the sheet metal.

[Insaneride]

I have one of those irons. I didnt know it was used by Tin Knocker's. Ive used it a couple times as a heat sink to weld up holes. If you use it with your MIG/FCAW to fill in holes, get some anti spatter spray on it.

I wouldnt file it. You lose material filing it. Instead, use vinegar. I would leave them the way they are unless needed to be shiny.

Not sure about how to tin it. Mine looks like silver solder but could be Pb/Sn. You could heat it and add Pb/Sn or silver solder to the tip.

Nice collection. What do you plan for it?

[AndyA]

I've used this for tinning steel.

If the irons are copper they should tin easily. Just clean and apply solder.

[Equilibrium]

"What do you plan for it?" It belongs to my girlfriend not me.... I just thought it was really interesting and took a photo of it after she described her memories of her Dad using it from when she was a little girl.
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Her mom passed away and within a few months, her dad passed away. It's been a rough year and a half for her. Her husband of 35 years just passed away. Their oldest is 30 but they've got two young ones. One is in his last year of college and another is in her last year of HS and does intend to go to college. My friend hasn't worked since two years after she married and that's obviously a big problem right about now. She has to sell their home.... no choice. It's time to start emptying her basement, closets, garage, shed, attic, and storage unit of 35 years of marital accumulations so the house will look "open and airy" when it goes on the market. She asked me to help her with tools. I'm better than the rest of her friends but that's not saying much so I cheated and reached out to a few people for help with pricing. Her Dad's little soldering furnace is going into a garage sale priced at $50 because as a wise man said, "Can always go down, kind of hard to jack the price up." The soldering irons will be priced at $3-$5 each and she's going to leave them as-is. If nobody buys the furnace or the irons, she's donating them to the local historical society. She has a few other items she'll donate to the historical society if they don't sell but for the most part, everything left after the sale will get hauled to GoodWill. Probably a good game plan.
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FlaJoe> "There is nothing better in the world than these old heavy irons for repairing thin sheet metal. They HOLD the heat but don't get hot enough to burn through the sheet metal." Tempting since I'm interested in sheet metal. She wanted me to take it because it belonged to her Dad. I just don't see where it would do anything but collect dust by me and besides which, I'm in the "unload-anything-that's-not-nailed-down" phase of my life myself. It's obviously a great conversation piece and is definitely a neat decorator item.... just not my style of decorating though.
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Aeronca> "Those big old soldering coppers are outstanding for fixing gas tanks and sheet metal soldering. Need a sal ammoniac block to rub the copper against when it comes out the heat before soldering." More temptations!!! I must resist. It would just be one more thing to dust around here and she could use the $$$ if it does sell.

[Oldendum]

I saw a guy in Thailand soldering some galvanized sheet metal with a big iron like that. He was producing boxes or pans of some sort. He could fly down a joint. Very fast.

[Zimm]

Jr. High metal shop had a set up like that. One of our projects was a funnel with a folded and soldered joint.

[ttyR2]

I have one of those Johnson soldering iron furnaces. I haven't tried it yet, but good point about it possibly being set up for natural gas. I will check that before first use.

[Iain P]

I've got an iron like that and an old gasoline blow torch that has a hook on it to hold the iron while the flame heats it up. I've never seen one of those ovens though, that is really interesting. You should at least try them before deciding to pass on them, soldering sheet metal is fun!

[DSW]

It would probably make a nice little forge as well for small things like bottle openers or leaves, key fobs etc.

[bhound]

If it where me,i'd buy that setup from your friend,keep it for awhile,then give it back,if it has good memories for her,she'll need the psychological pick me up later!

[Equilibrium]

bhound> She offered to give it to me... probably because she felt bad about letting it go.... it's the good memories you mentioned. Reality is she'll be downsizing from a 5-bedroom home with a full basement, large shed, and an attached garage to a 2 bedroom townhome or condo with at best... an eat-in kitchen or galley type kitchen with a small dining area, one living area, a little storage space in a common area and one.... possibly two parking spaces in an underground parking garage. She'll have one bedroom for herself and a bedroom for her youngest kid who's still in HS. Sadly, there won't be room to keep much of anything other than the basics and smaller family pieces. On the plus side, she hasn't shut down. She's still functioning well enough to know she's got to get out from under the remaining 13 year mortgage on their home. She'll be okay. She's hanging in....doing what she needs to do to stay afloat.
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I totally agree with you on psychological pick-me-ups!!! I set aside a sheet metal tool tote made by her Dad, a few small C clamps that her mother had written her name on, a pocket watch that works and actually keeps time, her Dad's wallet that still had a photo of her in it from when she was a little girl, a pocket knife that belonged to her Dad and another pocket knife that belonged to her husband. I found Christmas ornaments that were obviously from the 50's and will split them up per kid and am starting on tool boxes for each kid for when they get their own apartments.... their Dad was... dare I say it.... a tool whore. He had 4-5 of everything and bought quality tools so there will be plenty to fill their tool boxes with and the metal tool boxes I'm sorting everything into actually belonged to their Dad too.... there must be 10 over there. She set aside a few things also; a compartmentalized sheet metal tote that held assorted lengths of small threaded pipes by size to store her mail and bills in and a lamb cake mold her mother used every Easter when she was growing up. There will be other things.... she's got help over there. All her friends will know what's a keeper and what isn't.
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Speaking of "keepers" with sentimental value... this screw driver was found in the bottom of a tool box. It was made by her Dad when he was in tech school back in the 40's and he even engraved his name into it. The original drawings he used to create it were stuffed in his senior yearbook-
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That has got to be the most beautiful screwdriver I've ever seen and.... it goes into the toolbox I'm working on for my girlfriend!!!
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DSW> I've got enough things up in my treehouse as it is. If it doesn't sell at her garage sale... it will be a welcome addition at the local historical society.

[whtbaron]

That is a nice screwdriver... if I saw that in a yard sale I would snatch it up in a heartbeat.

[FlaJoe]

Don't be so stubborn about buying those soldering tools. I hate to use an old quote but it really applies here, "They don't make them like that any more!". I haven't seen tools like that in 20+ years and I WISH I had bought more of them when I had the chance. I think once you learn how to use them and everything that they can be used for, you'll find that you'll be glad that you bought them. Plus I think it will make your GF happy to see someone that she knows get her dad's tools verses just selling them at a garage sale.

[Equilibrium]

Check out what I found this afternoon buried in a box-
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It's a tiny compact little thing and looks to be in decent condition. Top says Johnson Gas and Cedar Rapids IA. She doesn't remember her Dad using this little soldering furnace so he might have picked it up after she married and moved to IL.
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I found a few other items that she said her Dad used but haven't a clue what they are. They looked real old. I'll get a photo of them soon as we get into that corner and can get some light to them.
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whtbaron> It is a beautiful screw driver. Didn't know a screwdriver could be beautiful until I set my eyes on this one.
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FlaJoe> "Don't be so stubborn about buying those soldering tools...Plus I think it will make your GF happy to see someone that she knows get her dad's tools verses just selling them at a garage sale" Are you my girlfriend registered under an assumed name pretending to be a guy from FL>>> She really wanted me to just take it and some sort of a sheet metal roller too. My space in the garage is at capacity and so is my treehouse.
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If you don't mind my asking, what all can these little soldering furnaces be used for aside from soldering sheet metal and repairing gas tanks?

Adding something...
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Would be interested in soldering sheet metal.... especially water cans which seem to fall apart after a few years. Not all that interested in repairing gas tanks though... am getting this visual of my body getting blown to smithereens.

[Silicon-based]

That is an older model than the Johnson in the Youtube video. The refractory looks like it's completely gone. The original lining was asbestos but I have re-lined them with 1/4" Fiberfrax. They are neat little furnaces, though. I have a couple of them, and a friend of mine has a 3-burner version that is about twice the size of these 2-burner models.

John

[FlaJoe]

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If you don't mind my asking, what all can these little soldering furnaces be used for aside from soldering sheet metal and repairing gas tanks?

Adding something...
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Would be interested in soldering sheet metal.... especially water cans which seem to fall apart after a few years. Not all that interested in repairing gas tanks though... am getting this visual of my body getting blown to smithereens.

With these heavy copper irons, you don't have to use a open flame around a gas tank, just heat the iron up and take it to the tank. (But there are other precautions that should be taken before soldering a fuel tank anyway. But that needs to be a separate thread.) You can also use a heated iron to solder copper pipes inside a wooden wall where you don't want to use an open flame. Also because the irons hold heat so well, you can use them to spot anneal hard metal (see my earlier post). They actually turn out to be useful for many things, you just have to use your imagination. Lead pots like that can be used for melting babbit metal to use as bearings; melting lead to use as seals, counter weights and all kinds of things. The Romans poured molten lead into the joints between stone columns to insure a tight fit. Many of those are still standing and the joints are intact even after 2000 years. I've also laid electronic circuit boards on top of the molten lead in those open top lead pots to melt all of the solder joints at the same time so that I can pull out ICs and other multi-lead components quickly. It only takes a FEW seconds to melt all of the solder joints and you can pop the parts right off. I also keep an old furnace similar to that just to melt down dirty, odd shaped scrap lead. After I clean it, I cast it into an old corn cob pans. I store the sticks and later remelt them and clean the lead a second time and then use it for casting bullets and a lot of other items. I generally takes TWO melting and cleaning sessions to get the lead completely clean. I sort the lead alloy before the first melting and make sticks of pure lead, different solder alloys, wheel weight alloy, Tin Type metal, etc and store those in heavy wood boxs. I then use enough sticks of each type of alloy to get the alloy that I need and I mix those on the second melting to get the characteristics (density and hardness, for example) that I need. I shot a lot of old obsolete calibers and I've cast a LOT of bullets for things think .38-72 Winchester, .25-20, .45-70, .69 Enfield, etc. I've also made a surprising number of other items such as tooling fixtures from lead.

Large heavy irons like that are also useful for soldering large electrical cables where you don't want to risk over heating and melting the insulation. You can also just dip the end cable into a lead pot to tin it so that makes things much quicker and easier.

[Equilibrium]

Silicon-based> Thanks for mentioning what you did to repair a similar little furnace since I just might have flipflopped on taking one of hers. Which type of Fiberfrax did you use to replace the asbestos lining? Rolled (Durablanket) or board (Duraboard) ? Is there anyplace that sells it in smaller quantities than a roll of 25'? Reason I'm asking is I found a few of these little stoves for sale all for around $40 and that includes a melting pot, coppers, and the original asbestos lining. I'd rather take her Dad's little furnace just because it was his but.... I don't want a $40 item to end up costing me around $200 when all is said and done.
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FlaJoe> Soooo.... you're saying I could use one of these to melt the pewter I've started collecting... assuming I bought a little melting pot somewhere and found a mold? I want little 3D birdies so bad you have no idea!!! Not comfortable doing anything with gas tanks.... I just get some really bad vibes about trying something like that.... I'm way too inexperienced of a weldor to try pulling something like that off.
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If I'm reading you right and I think I am... I'm going to back pedal and tell her I changed my mind and do want one of her Dad's little soldering furnaces. FlaJoe, which one should I accept? The smaller one would be much easier to find a place for me to stash. The taller one would have to be hauled up into the treehouse.

[DSW]

EQ I know a guy on the blacksmithing site that sells fiber blanket in small quantities for lining forges etc. I'm not sure if he sells the rigid boards or not. I know I've seen it some where, but it might have been lining material for one of the commercial forges. I can't remember if it was forge specific, or if it was flat sheet you then cut yourself.

Looking at his site, the Inswool insulating blanket is 24" wide, $9.00 per running foot plus shipping. I don't see the rigid board at the moment, but he may be able to point you in the right direction. I can dig more in my notes if need be to find you some.


I didn't think about your little birds. Something with a small pot on top would work just fine for that. I've been trying to come up with a solution to casting birds for you that doesn't involve casting them solid so you don't waste a lot of material. I've thought about hollow halves soldered together, but I'm not familiar enough with the process to know if it would do what you want.

[Equilibrium]

Let's see which soldering furnace FlaJoe says I should take. I won't need to buy Fiberfrax at all unless I choose the small soldering furnace. I 'spose I can stash the tall one under the treehouse along with my new shopping cart if that's the one he picks.
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As far as the little birdies go... I'm pretty sure I've got enough pewter for two solid birds right now. I picked up a small pewter pitcher of some sort at a garage sale for a few dollars and it's pretty heavy. I already had some other pewter thingies in a milk crate set aside to play with.

[Equilibrium]

Here's more "finds" and I know exactly what the long tools are from watching some YouTubes Rog02 suggested I watch... they're bead rollers and they're all from the 1860's-
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They all seem to work perfectly well and no cracks or welds on them. The breast drills are in good shape too although the one older hand drill has a broken handle so that will get "parted" out.