Weller magnastat soldering iron problem

Intermittant failure to heat. Not due to failing switch, but original plastic stress-relief sheathing at the blue body gone hard with age and causing stress to cable and then a conductor break. Makes you wonder where all that plasticiser migrates to, presumably us , quite a bit.

Reply to
N_Cook
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It outgasses..... to atmosphere. Just like the buildup of haze on the insid e of your windshield after a hot summer. That's your dashboard, vinyl, carp eting, wire insulation, powder coated parts, upholstery, foam, virtually ev erything in your car's interior except the metal itself, condensing on the glass and every other surface. Good reason to keep the air flowing thru the vehicle as you drive, minimize the inhalation of those compounds. Gotta lo ve that new car smell.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

Do you happen to know what the oily or slimy stuff is, that coats old very flexible cables such as telephone movable extension cables, a bio-film or plasticiser like chemical ?

Reply to
N_Cook

My assumption has always been household cooking grease. Any hard surface th at doesn't purposefully get cleaned regularly in a house where actual cooki ng takes place seems to accumulate airborne cooking grease. It soaks into s oft surfaces, but creates an oily film on everything else.

Used to make a lot of service calls into houses in certain ethnic neighborh oods. Bring TV sets back to the shop... first thing we did was wipe them do wn with glass cleaner. The ammonia in it worked much better than the "409" type cleaners of the day against cooking grease. Some sets were so greasy t here was a real risk of dropping them on the way out of the house. Sometime s the line cords were literally furry with grease and accumulated dust. And the high voltage sections, even worse.

You may be referring to something else... that was just my observation.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

We used to see a lot of icky goo back when we were digging through stuff at electronic surplus stores. The military used "cosmoline" on a lot of stuff it wanted to protect (or maybe still does). Core dump complete.

--
Cheers, Bev 
   Red ship crashes into blue ship - sailors marooned.
Reply to
The Real Bev

If you're going to use a Cooper Tools iron - keep a cheap Antex X25 iron ready to hand for all the times it'll need repairing.

Reply to
Ian Field

Including surplus jeeps. ;) (Car Talk nostalgia.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I bought a Weller WES51 back in 2001, it's been in constant service since then. I have a second WES51 I use occasionally (off site.)

The WES51 was a replacement for the TCP that I'd had since 1985. It dropped dead while I was at a field service site, so I didn't bother to "What's wrong with this?" at the time. I just bought a new station. After I got home, I fixed the TCP. it still works and is the "other" back up iron that's home in the garage now rather than in the shop.

--
"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

My one came via auction from one-time Ferguson production line at Gosport, England. Jane in 1986 melted here name and date on the front plastic. I only switch it on when required, heat-up time allows me to check I'm to mentally check the IC is in the right wat round or whatever. One tip that certainly avoided the barrel cracking at the hot end, transistor tab mount insulator, one above and one below the flange of the 3 fixing screws, may have helped such long service. I make my own long conical tips from believed Solon ancient iron tips cut down and salvaged magnastat fitted over a stub of copper clinker boat clenching nail.

Reply to
N_Cook

I recently dumped a box of telephone stuff ,been in a shed for 20 years, perfectly ok when put in there. All the leads were this manky gooey coating, no cooking in my shed of coarse. I'm reminded of the black goo in tape recorders/VCRs when a rubber band perishes to goo, and all the other bands get the same contagion and fail , but not necessarily to sticky goo

Reply to
N_Cook

In about 1975, I bought a large box full of Weller WTCPT, WTCPL, TC-201, etc soldering irons, bases, cords, parts, and goodies. I think I paid about $20 for everything. I've never bothered to count, but I think I've rebuilt about 10 irons out of the pile, and probably have parts for 5-10 more. A big irritation is that I have buy tips and sponges. I have at least one iron on every workbench, including the kitchen table. These are not the best irons available, but they seem to last forever and are fairly easy to fix when they decide its time to break.

Along the way, I've purchased a few imported soldering irons. They're much cheaper than Weller and do work well enough. Rather than give my friends one of my good Weller irons, I give them the imported irons.

As for the original problem, I can't tell what's broken from here. An ohmmeter will tell if it's a broken cable, bad switch contacts, or blown heater. The little plastic twist locks sometimes fall apart. Check for intermittent connectors where the cord enters the base.

My guess(tm) would be the contacts. Unwrap the yellow kapton tape. The plastic shell will fall apart. Clean the contacts. If the contacts are badly pitted, file down the peaks. Re-silver if necessary. Replace the tape, reassemble, check for continuity, and you're done.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It depends on the age. Today, most PVC and rubber cables use phthalates or ortho-phthalates as a plasticizer to soften the plastic and make it flexible. Before about 1930, it was castor oil or vegetable oil. Yech. (Yes, I know the formatting sucks, but the info looks good).

There are also non-phthalate plasticizers introduced: The SDS data says it's 98% bis(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate which makes me wonder why they claim it's non-phthalate.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

n

ide of your windshield after a hot summer. That's your dashboard, vinyl, ca rpeting, wire insulation, powder coated parts, upholstery, foam, virtually everything in your car's interior except the metal itself, condensing on th e glass and every other surface. Good reason to keep the air flowing thru t he vehicle as you drive, minimize the inhalation of those compounds. Gotta love that new car smell.

Huh, I always wondered where the 'haze' on the inside of my car window came from. Thanks.

George H.

Reply to
ggherold

Soldering iron cleaning sponges cost about nothing. I can go to the kitchen ware department & pick up a pack of 3 cellulose sponges (packed damp to kee p them soft until sold) for less than a buck. They cut up into I forget but maybe 20 soldering iron cleaning pads. The one trivial difference is the c olours.

If even that's too much, wet denim also makes a good iron cleaner.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Just make sure they are the cellulose sponges, not the plastic ones - the latter melt rather spectacularly and will foul the tip.

Note that the ones with the Scotch Brite surface are good for tip cleaning at the beginning of a session - but use with care and only when very wet as the material also will melt if exposed until dry.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
peterwieck33

What is the fascination everyone has with insisting on NOT using original parts on anything?

Over the years I have built up a stock pile of original parts and accessories for everything I own.

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"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

I worked out the source of periodic greasy grime on the outside of our cars parked over night, well balance of probability. By logging wind direction, seems it was a local hospital half a mile away, incinerating human body parts at night so people don't see the black smoke from the chimney.

Reply to
N_Cook

Thanks. I wasn't certain that the sponge was made from cellulose. I've tried that a few times, and the sponge usually just melted and charred. I probably was using plastic sponges.

If I can find some melamine sponge, it should work without water: Same with a brass or stainless scrubber.

A wet folded paper towel sorta works, but not very well.

Good idea. I'll give it a try. Anything to avoid paying $5 for a TC205 sponge.

Do it thyself tip cleaner:

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I quit the wet sponge years ago and went with the dry 'pot cleaner' thing. They can be had for about $ 3.50 from china. That is holder and the insert.

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RS0.TSS0

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

And this is a sensible URL for that item

Reply to
Andy Burns

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