We're getting old, folks...

Then again, in our day a PhD in Engineering allowed you to get dirty from
your toes to your nose. You can tell a PhD in Engineering today from the
soldering iron burns on his hands -- they don't know which end gets hot.

{;-)


Jim



"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...

Yes, it is pretty funny that he things a scientist could actually develop
anything. :-)

Matt

"RST Engineering" wrote

You can tell a PhD in Engineering today from the soldering iron burns on
his hands -- they don't know which end gets hot.

Then they need to get those new "cool" soldering irons, they advertise on TV
all of the time.

I can't imagine how those would work worth a damn. What do they have in
them? My guess is a small, low mass filament, almost like a light bulb. I
would imagine that if the thing you were trying to solder was of any size
(mass), they would not make enough watts of heat to get it up to
temperature, within any reasonable time.

Anyone have one, or seen one in action?
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

Anyone have one, or seen one in action?

Just bought one from a catalog. Haven't had time to try it out yet. Maybe this
weekend.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Jim wrote:
Then they need to get those new "cool" soldering irons, they advertise on TV
all of the time.

I can't imagine how those would work worth a damn. What do they have in
them? My guess is a small, low mass filament, almost like a light bulb. I
would imagine that if the thing you were trying to solder was of any size
(mass), they would not make enough watts of heat to get it up to
temperature, within any reasonable time.

Anyone have one, or seen one in action?

I think it's called Cold Heat, I've been eyeing it for awhile now
myself, but I think I'll wait 'til I get a few good pireps on them
first :^)

The Monk

I can't imagine how those would work worth a damn.

Your imagination is accurate, as one with any soldering experience might
guess.

My sister gave me one last year; it is useless.

However, one of the best soldering tools I have (besides my temperature
controlled Weller) is a small butane iron I got from Radio Snack many years
ago. Highly portable and reliable.

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 01:19:04 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


"RST Engineering" wrote

You can tell a PhD in Engineering today from the soldering iron burns on
his hands -- they don't know which end gets hot.

Then they need to get those new "cool" soldering irons, they advertise on TV
all of the time.

I can't imagine how those would work worth a damn. What do they have in
them? My guess is a small, low mass filament, almost like a light bulb. I
would imagine that if the thing you were trying to solder was of any size
(mass), they would not make enough watts of heat to get it up to
temperature, within any reasonable time.

Anyone have one, or seen one in action?

Two electrodes. (You can't get much simpler than that) You short them
together with what every you want to melt. That's assuming what ever
it is melts at less than the electrodes and the really wild assumption
that it'd have enough power to do so. :-))

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Morgans wrote:

Anyone have one, or seen one in action?

Ok, just tried it out. Here's how they work. The tip is actually two electrodes.
When you touch the tip to the work, the work makes the electrical contact, and
it heats up like a light bulb filament. The tip doesn't heat up much, but the
work does. I tried to tin some 26 gauge stranded copper wire, and it brought the
flux to a boil much more rapidly than a hot soldering pencil iron does.

Here's the problem. You have to keep both electrodes in contact with the work.
In my case, this proved to be impossible; the wire was just too flexible. I can
see that there might also be problems heating up both pieces when soldering two
items together. Failure to get both pieces hot results in what's called a "cold
solder joint."

There's a little light on top that tells you when contact is being made. You
really have to keep this light in sight. The tip has only one flat surface, and
the only way it works is to press this surface against the work. Fortunately,
the tip can be inserted in the iron in either of two directions, so it shouldn't
be much of a problem.

Anyway. Imagine. There you are under your panel trying to solder a wire to a
lug. You hold the wire firmly in place with your left hand and manipulate the
soldering iron into position with your right hand. Wiggle things around to keep
the little red light on. When the joint gets hot, you apply the solder with your
third hand.

Don't have a third hand? Then maybe this thing isn't for you.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Great pirep, I think you've just saved me $19.95 or whatever it cost
yah. Thanks George. :^)

The Monk

Anyway. Imagine. There you are under your panel trying to solder a wire to a lug. You hold the wire firmly in place with your left hand and manipulate the soldering iron into position with your right hand. Wiggle things around to keep the little red light on. When the joint gets hot, you apply the solder with your third hand.

And this differs from regular soldering how?

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:14:09 GMT, Jose
wrote:

Anyway. Imagine. There you are under your panel trying to solder a wire to a lug. You hold the wire firmly in place with your left hand and manipulate the soldering iron into position with your right hand. Wiggle things around to keep the little red light on. When the joint gets hot, you apply the solder with your third hand.

And this differs from regular soldering how?

With the soldering gun you are far more likely to be injured from a
burn.

With this device you are far more likely to be injured from the chain
reaction of 1. Getting frustrated, 2. Getting ****ed!, 3. Throwing
something due to item #2, 4. Hitting hand/fingers while in act of
throwing, 5. Hitting head on underside of panel hard enough to require
stitches while instinctively raising up to cuss at full volume in
reaction to hand damage, 6. Damage to back requiring more stitches,
caused while flailing about trying to get out from under panel with
precious bodily fluids running in eyes from step 5 caused by step 4
caused by step 3 caused by step 2 which came from step one, which was
due to being too cheap the hire someone qualified to do the job in the
first place.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Jose