OT: Weller soldering irons

[Jon Elson]

On 04/05/2020 03:32 PM, Pete Turnbull via cctalk wrote:
> A few hours ago I started looking at three "smart" light 
> switches that need LEDs replaced, and switched on the 
> soldering iron, and ... nope. It's a Weller WP80 and it 
> seems the sensor in the heating element has died.  I 
> discovered that only after resetting and then dismantling 
> the control unit to check it out with a DVM, of course.
>
> Clearly I need either a new WP80 element, or a new 
> soldering iron.  I could get a WSP80 for far less than the 
> cost of a new element for the WP80, but I'd get the 
> element faster.  So which, if any, is the better iron?  
> What would you guys do?
>
> I begrudge paying UKP 92 for a new element.  That's the 
> cheapest I could find -- /half/ the most expensive price 
> -- but just seems ludicrously extortionate for what 
> amounts to a piece of swaged stainless steel tube with a 
> short length of resistance wire and an even shorter length 
> of thermocouple wire inside it.  I could buy a whole new 
> solder station with more bells and whistles, albeit of a 
> "lesser brand", for less.
>
Is the sensor a separate component?  On the EC1302 and 
several other models, the sensor is
a separate piece that fits up through the center of the 
heater and poked into the back of the
replaceable tip.  I got one for that iron years ago from, I 
think, Newark.  So, you might try
at Farnell and see if they have spares.

Jon