Iron tip trouble

• NOT if you use Multicore Savbit

• Your stubble is _brass_?

Interesting - it has copper in it, so that the copper of the iron is not attacked:

Is the RF magnetic field (13.56MHz I think) really strong enough to pick things up? I have two MX500 and don't recall having this problem.

Perhaps I am not seeing this problem because I did remove the big NdFeB magnets from the stand that came with the newer MX500, because I don't like the iron being made to cool down when I put it away. I prefer to turn off the power when I want it cold, and otherwise I want it hot right away. The stand that came with the older MX500 never had the NdFeB magnets in the first place. I guess that they added the magnets to reduce the warranty costs due to the insulation of the coils in the tips failing - at my previous workplace we used to send off batches of failed tips for free replacements.

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It's not the energizing current. It's the magnets in the tip that constitu te the thermostat.

It's the DC field of the MX5 Talon tips. I'll try degaussing them and see if that helps.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

My Weller has a magnet in the switch assembly, but I have disassembled a dead Metcal tip, and read their patents (US4745264, US4839501), and it doesn't rely on a permanent magnet in the tip. I believe that there is a copper slug with some sort of resistive plating on it that has the right Curie temperature, all inside a little coil. I believe that the way it works is that there is a very strong skin effect in the plating below its Curie point, so that the current flows in the highly-resistive plating. Above the Curie point, most of the current flows in the copper, so the heating is greatly reduced.

I suspect that the big NdFeB magnets in the newer stands are intended to saturate the plating inside the tip, leading to less skin effect, and less heating.