28 May
2009
28 May
'09
5:40 a.m.
On May 28, 2009, at 4:21 AM, David Griffith wrote:
Tonight I had one of those I-gotta-tinker moments at
midnight. I
had the Atari 2600 laid open, ready to accept the AV mod board I
finished up a couple days ago. I plugged in the soldering iron and
poured a capful of water from a bottle into the sponge. After
about ten minutes, I picked up the iron and poked it at the
sponge. No sizzle. Dink around with the cord and shank. No
heat. Ah. This is the iron that I lent to someone who put melty
marks in the cord. I guess it's dead. There went another
disposable soldering iron.
Ugh! Don't buy those crappy disposable irons. Quality tools are
important.
One reason I never graduated to /real/ soldering
stations is that I
kept wondering "what do I do when it goes bad?". What do you guys
recommend?
They generally don't go bad. I've had my Metcal for ten years...I
did low-volume commercial assembly with it for a while; I've probably
soldered a thousand PCBs with it, mostly surface mount. It was used
when I got it.
It replaced a Weller WTCPT (I second Tim's recommendation) that
was easily twenty years old when I got it, and I used it for another
fifteen.
Another thing about real soldering equipment. Once you use a
temperature-controlled iron, you'll never go back to one that isn't.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL