Post by dopiaza on Feb 3, 2015 10:05:30 GMT -5
I'm in the UK, and have finally got my Searzall up and running to my satisfaction. I thought I'd share my experience here in case other folk find it useful. When I ordered the Searzall, I figured it surely couldn't be *that* hard to find the torch and gas canisters over here. Well, it turned out to be trickier than I expected.
The TS8000 was easy enough to find on ebay - plenty of US sellers selling those who are happy to ship them across the Atlantic. The gas canisters are a little harder though. The only ones I've been able to find readily available so far are the tall, skinny 400g (14oz) ones - none of the short fat, dumpy 16oz ones. So, I decided to try one of the tall skinny ones, simply because I was desperate to test this thing out. I found a Bernzomatic-branded one on ebay, but that just seemed to be a one-off - not somewhere to find a regular supply. In the end, I also bought some own-brand ones from Bullfinch.
Well, the Searzall worked brilliantly. The thin cylinders though, are completely unstable - there's no way one of those is going to stand up on its own with a Searzall attached to the top. In the end, I took to laying the Searzall down on a wire cooling rack each time I put it down. Clunky, but practical.
I figured someone else must have had this problem before, even with regular torches, so surely somebody must build some kind of stand for them to stop them falling over so easily. It turns out Rothenburger make one. I found some on Amazon for £7.90. It also seems that Screwfix sell them for an eye-watering £27.99. A Google search shows a number of other places selling them for under a tenner though.
So, the stand works extremely well. It clips onto the bottom of the cylinder, and remains there firmly when you pick the cylinder up. When set down, the whole thing seems pretty stable - you'd certainly have to be trying to knock it over now.
All in all, I'm very happy with my setup now. So, the only problem remaining is to decide what shall I sear next.
The TS8000 was easy enough to find on ebay - plenty of US sellers selling those who are happy to ship them across the Atlantic. The gas canisters are a little harder though. The only ones I've been able to find readily available so far are the tall, skinny 400g (14oz) ones - none of the short fat, dumpy 16oz ones. So, I decided to try one of the tall skinny ones, simply because I was desperate to test this thing out. I found a Bernzomatic-branded one on ebay, but that just seemed to be a one-off - not somewhere to find a regular supply. In the end, I also bought some own-brand ones from Bullfinch.
Well, the Searzall worked brilliantly. The thin cylinders though, are completely unstable - there's no way one of those is going to stand up on its own with a Searzall attached to the top. In the end, I took to laying the Searzall down on a wire cooling rack each time I put it down. Clunky, but practical.
I figured someone else must have had this problem before, even with regular torches, so surely somebody must build some kind of stand for them to stop them falling over so easily. It turns out Rothenburger make one. I found some on Amazon for £7.90. It also seems that Screwfix sell them for an eye-watering £27.99. A Google search shows a number of other places selling them for under a tenner though.
So, the stand works extremely well. It clips onto the bottom of the cylinder, and remains there firmly when you pick the cylinder up. When set down, the whole thing seems pretty stable - you'd certainly have to be trying to knock it over now.
All in all, I'm very happy with my setup now. So, the only problem remaining is to decide what shall I sear next.
