I Has a Blowtorch

Wheeeeeee! Blowtorch finally arrived at work, along with my lovely barrel polishing machine. Was a bit scared taking the torch home on the bus, as I thought the combination of hot weather and bus vibration might make it explode. The boy pointed out I was an idiot and I did have to concede that he was correct after making it home without incident.

Slightly alarmingly, the instructions made a whole lot of assumptions that if you were buying this piece of pretty dangerous equipment, you probably had a pretty good general idea of how it works. Alas, no. It sat in my living room glaring malevolently at me for a couple of days, before the boy and I finally took it outside and, using a combination of the instructions and looking at the picture on the front of the box eventually figured out how it was supposed to fit together and made the required tiny blue flame. Which, it turns out, is very hot. Who knew...?

Anyway, did some practicing on scrap silver and generally melted stuff. Eep! The flame burns way hotter than my old torch and I think I'm going to need some practice before I start on the helmets. Also, soldering outside on a hot sunny day is not really ideal, as you can't see the metal do the glowy thing it does just before it melts, so today I will try again, but indoors, and with a bit more care and attention.

Also, I just changed a tire on my bicycle all by myself, as I'd been getting a ton of punctures so purchased a new armoured road tire. It was a bit of a struggle, but am happy I got it done with no help whatsoever from boys, yay!

Off to play with the torch now. If I don't burn my house down, I'll let you know how it goes...