Metcal Wand Repair Question

Does anyone know how to disassemble the Metcal solder wands so they can be repaired? Mine has an intermittent somewhere in the wand handle and I'm not sure how it comes apart. Afraid I'm going to damage it if I force it apart. My understanding is that the wands have not changed that much over the years. Anyone with any knowledge on this?

Thanks Jim

The tips are inserted as a coaxial device plug. The center pin of the wand grasps that pin of the tip. That wears out.

Get a new wand (bad name choice for you and or Matcal).

The tips ALSO wear out at the connector, whether you think you see any damage or not, and will not connect no matter what you do, so also try a NEW TIP, which you should have a few of on hand anyway. Yes, I KNOW that they are $45 each.

They (the wand handle) are molded around the connector, so there is no servicing them without splitting the "wand" at the tip socket end.

You may still fail. You could hard solder it, once you do get access to it, but that means you'll have to do that from now on too.

What is worth more? The new tip price or your personal time?

Myself... I'd just buy the new part... probably keep the old.

Is your PC clock off?

No.. I don't think so. Looks OK here.

Thanks for the advice... actually, I can tell that the intermittent resides where the coax cable enters the wand handle. Somewhere around the molded strain relief, it appears.

Somewhere, I had read that it is possible to take them apart. Maybe that really isn't the case after all.

Take care. Jim

It is more likely the tip. I had Metcal for many years and sometimes the tip would go intermittent. Try taping it sharply just where the tip enters the tube. The induction heating coil sometimes fails intermittently. I have "fixed" many tips that way. Sometimes it does not work.

If the plating is not worn, Metcal will replace failed tips.

Does someone have a good recipe for Iron plating? I have accumulated a bundle of working tips with plating worn off.

-- Boris

Must be Larkin's then. His response appeared BEFORE your query.

Ahh... that would seem repairable. I was assuming, and used to the typical problems associated with their system.

That may be. It may only appear as a single, molded on item, but again, I have not observed them all too closely as I haven't had many problems.

I have always been one of those "wire never twisted, and always kept in perfect order" kind of guys. I untwist the cord as I wrap it up, and consider that important when supervisors consider a 100% neat bench important. I think there is NOTHING wrong with a little clutter on one's bench. Odd, though that I have ALways, even when I was a little kid, kept my AC power cords, etc in top order. Maybe it was because I got knocked on my ass as a kid by a frayed cord at the entrance to a device.

It seems repairable if the break is at the BACK of the wand. That can be cut open, but your stress relief will be even less than before afterward, so you would have to be more prudent about cord management in future use of it, which you probably know.

Yes. It is a Metcal. They are made to be up to temp within ten seconds. Therefore, TURN IT OFF when you are not using it. With it on the whole day, the tip loses that many hours of life. With it on only when you use it, it GAINS all those lost hours back. Basic math.

I turn my iron OFF after using it, even if it is only seconds before the next use..

Mainly because the plating leaches the fastest while the tip is up to its 650, 700, or even higher tip temps.

My tips last for years, and always look brand new AT THE TIP. The behind the tip area oxidizes because of the water sponge wipes, and the heat, but even that can be kept minimized with conscientious use.

There is also a "Sal Ammonium" block from Kester that you can buy that will redress may tips where folks think plating is gone, but it is really a crust that has formed.

I also NEVER fell for that retarded "Put a ball of solder on it when you are done" stupidity. The flux in the solder IS the deoxidizing agent, so it only follows that leaving a big blob of solder and flux on the tip is one more cycle out of the total number God gave the tip at its birth :-)

Archimedes' Lever a écrit :

I have a stand where the tip is surrounded with magnets, making the tip losses vanish and it's hardly warm. Very handy...

I missed the cause and effect here.

Are you saying that the magnets turn of the drive on the tip, and the temp sensor no longer causes the tip to be fed power?

Nope. In a Metcal the tip temperature is regulated because when the tip reaches it's Curie temperature the material becomes paramagnetic and hysteresis losses vanish. Having the tip in a big magnetic field almost saturate the material vastly reducing hysteresis losses. There only remains eddy currents losses which are, since the the tip is almost cold, low.

Ok... let me see if I get this right...

The unit is ON, and when you pull the tip free of the field, it returns to being driven to temp, and when you put it back in the field it fools the unit into thinking it is already up to temp, so it discontinues driving the tip heater?

The magnetizing field is permanently applied. The driving unit don't even notice, except less power is drawn. That's the tip material that changes its response to the applied mag field.

Well, the tip acts as a single turn secondary, right?

So they have to place thing so the Curie point (of the core?) is reached only *after* the tip temp is reached, since the tip temp is so far above the Curie point.

So the element must be a bit further up the tip shaft.

Anyway, it sounds like a neat solution, and you should patent it, and then sell it to Metcal so they can incorporate it directly into their bases.

It would be an excellent alternative to cycling the power switch constantly, which happens to be one of the poorest choices for them to have made. I have seem two units already that fail to toggle the switch due to a borderline problematic internal design flaw.

A button in the wand would be an option too. A low power switching level voltage, of course, to keep the switch hi rel. The magnetic field thing sounds like the right technology/solution though. I can't believe they did not already arrive at this, and it is pretty cool that you came up with it. Or did you get it from an associate? Pretty neat, either way. I will have to try it.

Are the strontium wafer magnets that are in the head movement for an old hard drive suitable? Two? Or would four be better, and does orientation even matter, or just simply a dense flux field?