when soldering irons go bad

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. 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? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?