Since you've parroted that well-crafted phrase several times, I will read it as
"I melted through the outer jacket, but was lucky enough to only partly melt the inner insulation"
I think my old red X25 still bears that scar from when I was about twelve ...
Pye Line transformers needed two 25W irons to release them, coordination was difficult and involved the use of Ones gut, if help wasn't on hand.
Soldering using Ones stomach wasn't a simple task and was prone to the odd minor disaster.
I was an apprentice then :-)
AB
You don't have much wordly experience do you.
Our Usenet Guru?
He has a point, scrap testing for kids, stream them on soldering iron size. Anyone with a 25W iron and a xtal set under their belt is a duffer, bung em in with the loonies, after applying a dunces cap of course.
The good old Solon must now have a warning, "for use by idiots only". There is the possibility that some 25W irons are not used for electronics, but best play safe and ensure that only the total fools are in receipt.
It's an eye opener, I tell you, having hundreds of colleagues and aquaintences in the consumer electronics field categorised as total fools. And they seemed so normal too.
One lives and learns
Ab
Even more reason to use an industry standard 50 watt type. Is capable of doing pretty well any normal repair job. Probably why that size is a standard with pros.
I've seen lots and lots of pro workshops. Which repair electronics. And all have used low voltage temperature controlled soldering stations.
Apart from anything else, with a low volt temperature controlled iron, both the bits and elements will last longer. An important thing when earning money from repairs. Anyone who doesn't know this is an amateur.
25W was the industry standard.
I took a great interest in what I did and visited many workshops in the UK and overseas, there would always be a few 25W solons smoldering away on the benches.
AB
I used 25W irons costing around £3-00, I could order them up as often as I needed them. A soldering station would have involved planning and persuasion.
Even now, I have a couple of 25W irons, also a couple of gas Wellers. I would not use a controller because of its footprint.
I wouldn't use a curie controlled iron either, they were garbage.
I no longer spend hours at a bench soldering, and if I tried it, I suspect that my skills would have suffered over the years.
I hate to think what my work would have been like a few years back, when my visits to the pub involved a two handed snatch for the first few pints to avoid a soggy counter.
AB
I've not seen the workshop end of many repair places. But some of them certainly do use much more basic equipment. The 'nicer' places use thermostatic, the more ramshackle places often don't.
That's just funny. It's probably fair to say that ignorance re soldering iron tips is common.
Why do I waste my time on usenet.
NT
I have never known an old clothes iron flex that lasted more than 18 months, they all seem to twist inside and break up the cotton and rubber.
Any establishment would hopefully have equipment suited for the task, never confuse "nicer" with more professional.
I went on from consumer electronics to the MOD, where no expense was spared. The main factor regarding success and quality of work was the personnel.
One of those minor incidentals that are totally forgotten, until you are down to the last couple of irons and end up drilling the corroded bit, half the aluminium holder and some of the element too in an attempt to change the seized bit.
It's not a waste of time, it , like Brexit can be a source of amusement, and I do have a lot to thank this NG for.
UK.d-i-y has a wealth of experience and a considerable number of willing advisors.
Granted there are one or two total tossers, but most contributors provide sound valuable advice and it would be a boring NG if there was only one standard answer.
Wikipedia would render the NG virtually useless if that were the case.
Be thankful, at least the group has advice and individuals
AB
Hmm. Perhaps you iron everything.
NT
Even a copper lump & coal fire can do the task. I don't think you'd believe what equipment I once did repairs with.
A quick file of the tip is mostly the answer. It's quicker, and fwliw cheaper. A lot of people are horrified by that, thinking the precious iron plating is vital - it's not. It just slows corrosion.
it would if it could work out what the one answer is.
I've learnt lots here. I've also learnt stuff by not taking advice here. But some of the discussions do get quite pointless. I can only blame myself for continuing to discuss those ones.
NT
When needs must :-)
And of course there are those who would sit waiting for B&Q to open:-(
I would disagree on this point, my experience was that it was better to treat the tip gently. Soggy sponge and that tin of resiny mild abrasive that was sold for the purpose. When the first pit showed, the file came out and stayed out. Oxidation was exponential at that point.
The irons were on all day every day though.
It has a lot of answers but little experience.
Correct, that's why threads tail off and die I suppose.
I have used usenet since the time I connected with a modem of a few hundred baud, it is a superb medium. I think all those sensitive souls on Facebook and Twitter should spend time on it, before jumping off cliffs because someone on social media has done a zit count and deemed them a pariah.
AB
I'll take your word over ramshackle places. They are outside my experience.
Are you saying from experience that a non temperature controlled mains iron will have as long and element and bit life as a low voltage temperature controlled type?
I'm saying from *my* experience, they don't.
In a repair shop, an iron is often left on all day whether in use or not.
An oversimplification, in general a controlled iron will have a longer bit life, but many irons including my two are not controlled and are still on their first bit.
Depends on duty cycle, depends on the items being repaired.
On a personal level, I would always prefer a copper tip, I always liked the resin cored flux and the Savbit alloy [Fry's I think].
Watching all manner of people of all abilities antics with an Iron, I think there is a lot of empathy needed with the equipment to produce a good joint. Basically whatever one feels comfortable with, but dropping a few Meg of RAM, a CPU and a few interface chips onto a board with a 25W iron, wouldn't endear One to the workshop manager.
Incidentally, the controlled stations tended to be wacked up fully anyway, the irons were seldom out of ones grubby little mitts, so there was often only a few minutes to build up temperature during the "repairs"
Very rarely did the luxury of faultfinding pay off, the cost of labour vs components led to blanket component swaps.
Some professionals would probably produce a more mechanically sound, electrically conductive joint with a tube of Bostick. Whatever the equipment used to melt the solder.
A bit like yours truly with plastering.
that's what you do before it needs filing. I always found wet denim preferable to cellulose sponge.
increased certainly, not exponential.
I remember using 300 baud. I don't think I'd heard of usenet then though
NT
you like making silly stuff up don't you.
obviously, to anyone that actually does electronics
NT
it's basic fizzicks, a non thermostatic iron inevitbaly runs hotter when not thermally loaded, and hotter = faster oxidation, if all else is equal, which it isn't.
I remember irons with a boost button too, liked those.
NT
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