Gifts for steampunks

Jake von Slatt sez, "Make: Blog was very kind to ask me back for another year of The Steampunk Gift Guide. These are 'gifts for the Steampunk' rather then 'Steampunk gifts.'"

Lenk Butane Torch and Soldering Iron

Price: $49.99
Buy: Wall Lenk Store - Link

These are my two Lenk torches. To the left is an alcohol-fired torch that's probably 50-75 years old. I occasionally use it to heat-shrink tubing, but it's difficult to maintain and liable to seriously burn you if you are not careful with it.

To the right is my Lenk LSP-180 combination soldering iron and mini-torch. It's one of my very favorite tools and I use it a for soldering wire connections in soldering iron mode and for heating and soldering brass and copper shapes in torch mode.

Steampunk Gift Guide - 2008 (Thanks, Jake!)

[#1 posted by seyo , December 11, 2008 8:49 AM]

Those torches are also great for making crème brulée and for searing fish, meat, veggies and fruit while keeping the flesh raw, just to name a couple non steampunky uses.

[#2 posted by jahknow , December 11, 2008 9:15 AM]

Indeed; that new-fangled LSP-180 could probably help me burn certain organic materials much more efficiently than the average Bic lighter.

[#3 posted by ZippySpincycle , December 11, 2008 9:25 AM]

The LSP-180 appears to work just fine, but I bet it would be even better if it had some brass gears glued onto it.