This is review is for the Dremel Versa Tip butane soldering torch (Amazon link). It’s sells for around $38 on Amazon Prime. This is a portable soldering iron/heat gun/hot cutter/wood burning tool, that runs on butane. You click to light it, use the lock to keep the flame on, and then you adjust it for the temperature you need.

The whole thing comes as a kit in a nice box with foam cut outs to keep everything tidy. In the box, you get a soldering tip, a cutting knife good for nylon rope, a shaping knife meant for plastics, a hot air tip good for heat shrink, and two adapters for the air tip — one that fans the air flat and wide, meant for paint removal; and one that’s meant to help wrap air around a cable you’re trying to heat shrink so you can kinda get around the whole thing in one shot.

You also get some basic solder, a sponge, some wrenches for changing the tips, and a protective cap. The cap is made in such a way that you can put it one even when the tip is still a little hot, without melting the cap.

Three great things about this torch:

1. The shape and weight feels just like a corded soldering iron, but you can use it anywhere.
2. So long as you have butane refills nearby, you have almost zero downtime. It fills back up in seconds and runs for about an hour depending on how hot you’re burning.
3. You get variable heat control. At full blast, some people use these for jewelry work. Set low, it’s fine for basic electronics.

So that’s the Dremel Versa Tip butane soldering torch. If you’re interested, be sure to use the above link to pick one up. I also have a side-by-side comparison video worth checking out showing this with two other portable soldering iron options. And remember, you can see thousands of reader recommended tools just like this, at Cool Tools.

Update 7/5/18:

There have been a number of projects over the past year where I would have reached for the Dremel as a way to tackle high-heat solder jobs, like heavy gauge wire. But in those cases I’ve typically just grabbed my Bernz-O-Matic ST2200T Micro Flame Butane Torch Kit, which I keep handy for heat shrink and comes with a soldering tip that screws in. It’s less fussy than grabbing for the Dremel case, and gets high-heat jobs done just as well for me.

That said, there are a number of features on the Dremel (such as the hot cutting knife and the shaping knife) that I’ve yet to take advantage of and I have no other tool that replicates those features. If hot knife work is something you can make use of, the Dremel has the advantage.