Author: clarnibass
Date: 2016-09-21 10:16
There are a few reasons, I'll try to explain as best as I can. I'm not saying a flame is better, just why I prefer it.
Even though the nozzle is pretty small, it is still harder to see where the air is going, unlike a flame. It might be safer for someone with no experience with a flame, but with experience a flame is not a problem.
You can't use the melting temp of the glue or just slightly above, since you need a significantly higher temp of the heat source to have the key cup and the glue themselves hot enough. Pointing the hot air directly towards the key can be a problem sometimes, especially with some pads that are more sensitive to heat.
With a flame, the glue itself melts much faster, then after the pad is installed, if any more heating is necessary, you heat it on the side so not to have the pad directly in the way of the heat source. This is tricky with a hot air torch.
Not removing a key is not an advantage for me since I always remove a key when installing a pad. Even on the cheapest models I check if the tone hole is flat, what glue was used before (with some glues I prefer to completely remove it and with some glues leftovers are fine).
I started using the electric heater mainly because one of the types of pads I use is more sensitive to heat.
By the way one supposedly excellent saxophone repair shop uses almost only hot air torches for the padding. So it's a matter of understanding advantages and disadvantages of each options and choosing based on that.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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