Cold Heat Solder

Hah!!! Well, I know enough from just superficially looking at their web site. How long will those batteries last (for real?). Appears to me like one of those seeming like fancy and nice-to-have tools, but eventeually they'll end up in a drawer, gathering dust! Stick to wire wrapping when it comes to one-off projects.

BCNU

Waldemar

"RichH" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@news.wowway.com...

I don't want to replace wire wrapping... I just want a better soldering iron for sockets and components.

Cheers, Rich

RichH wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.wowway.com:

I've heard that they do a decent job for soldering small things together, like for example two thin wires. But they cannot handle larger things, and I expect they'd have trouble heating up a device enough to wick the solder into the holes. I personally am staying away from the devices.

-Michael

I bought one.

It uses an electric arc between two (apparently) ceramic-type posts. It worked great for tinning the ends of wires. They state you must make a contact between the two posts and the item you are soldering. Not too difficult on larger items but maybe not practical for smaller items. Their claims of it's cooling down after use in seconds is very valid. I tinned a pair of wires then shut it off and touched the ends. While it was still mildly warm, it was by no means hot. You could certainly throw it back into a drawer without risking setting something on fire.

The question about lifetime of the batteries is valid, also. I haven't used it enough to tell yet but it would appear to use a lot of current when the arc is present.

It will probably serve as an emergency iron but will probably not get used that much.

Dave

Thanks for the info.

Have you used it to solder anything on a PCB board, sockets, etc?

So far, looks like I'll pass.

Cheers, Rich

I found this on a web site describing the cold heat soldering iron:

"The one caveat to using the iron is that if you touch its two prongs to different leads of a sensitive component like a chip, you could burn out the component. "

That would certainly limit the tool's utility for me.

Mark Borgerson

See also the repsonse from Mark Borgerson.

Since this (apparently) uses an electric arc, I don't think it would be practical for any sensitive electronics applications. I might use it for mounting headers, sockets, or connectors before electronic components are mounted (but usually I mount them in the opposite order:) ) I'd even be a little concerned that if sensitive components are mounted on a board prior to the connector, that using this tool on a connector might inadvertantly induce a destructive current on the trace being soldered through a component it was attached to. I don't know that for a fact, though. It seems since the heating method is through an arc, it would be something akin to inducing a static charge on an input... sometimes very destructive.

It will still be good to use for everyday tasks like tinning leads, cable work, and non-critical applications like non-electronic automotive work. It would be good in this kind of an application because of it's portability.

If you need something for critical electronics work, though, you'd probably be much better off getting something better suited to the task.

Dave