Soldering iron problems

[gromit]

I was wiring up a trailer at the weekend, it's on the driveway so I was using a long extension lead to run the soldering iron.
Supercheap iron stopped working.....bugger, switched to an old Weller iron and soon after that stopped working, BUGGER !.

Found an old industrial Weller iron which is 24V and sits on a transformer base. Brilliant, heated up quickly and no problems, finished the soldering.

Why did the two mains units fail (the Supercheap one came good later in the day), is it a voltage drop along the extension lead so it draws more amps ?? The Weller was fairly crude with no protection but the Supercheap one possibly had overload protection.


Colin

[Homestar]

I wouldn't have thought voltage drop would be an issue - as irons are purely resistive, if the volts were a bit low, they would just draw a bit more current bit we are only talking a few watts here.

More likely a dodgy outlet on the lead?

I have 7 solderimg irons all up so never a shortage of units to use. That's only the electric ones, I have 2 gas units and a torch too for bigger jobs - do I have a problem... 😁

[Kmakdaddy]

Where they left in The Sun? They might have a thermal overload in them. I have an IRODA gas unit not cheep but worth it’s weight in gold for work and play.

[67hardtop]

I wouldn't have thought voltage drop would be an issue - as irons are purely resistive, if the volts were a bit low, they would just draw a bit more current bit we are only talking a few watts here.

More likely a dodgy outlet on the lead?

I have 7 solderimg irons all up so never a shortage of units to use. That's only the electric ones, I have 2 gas units and a torch too for bigger jobs - do I have a problem... 😁
I think ur hooked on the resin cored solder flux smell Gav[emoji12]

[DoubleChevron]

yeah... the modern irons are chinese crap :) I have a number of soldering irons. But you get sick of **** irons and end up buying a good one. So I have lots of cheap crappy soldering irons that are not longer used. And a Super Scope low voltage iron with a seperate transformers (bloody brilliant irons). for detail work a cheap temperature controlled iron (fine for circuit board work). I use a gas torch for soldering big stuff. but probably need to invest in a proper gas soldering iron at some point :)

I just went through the same with battery chargers. I had 3 battery chargers. the two modern'ish smart chargers **** themselves. SO I was back to only the old transformer charger. I got tired of that and purchased a pinacle wholesaler 10amp smart charger (we'll see how long it lasts) and a huge monster sized transformer charger on wheels that can also apparently jump start cars... simple no electronics, so will hopefully stay working.

seeya,
Shane L.

[gromit]

I'm running grinders & a welder off the lead so odd that one iron fails and one overloads.
Could have been in the sun for a while.
Anyway the ancient Weller industrial came good, think I picked it up in the UK so over 20years old......


Colin

[Tins]

I have two gas powered irons. One is a Weller Pyropen, and the other is a $20 Aldi jobbie. It's a ripper of a thing to take with you, and seems to do everything the Weller does. The difference is, it cost about a sixth of what the Weller cost, so if I lose it or break it it doesn't hurt so much. In fact, next time I see them at Aldi I'll get another as a spare.