My worst run-in with a soldering iron was when I was doing some work at my father's emergency-lighting plant *man* years ago. They used real industrial strength soldering irons (the metal body was about 1" diameter and the tip was a 4-sided point which was easily about 1/4" diameter). Well, I had placed the iron in its holder, and was reaching for something else when I caught the cord and the iron started to fall... my instinctual reaction was to reach out and grab for it, which I did... grabbing it firmly with my hand... quickly turning most of my palm and the anterior surface of all my fingers and thumb into seared tissue... I never did that again... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+