In article ,
Robin .@. writes:
Sigh.

Can anyone recommend a soldering iron that, er, works.

I have a small customer computer cable that I need to solder to an RS232
DE-9. (i.e. 4 small wires onto a mounting block.)

I've got a Antex 16-18w iron that I got from Maplin a couple of years
back, but rarely used. It doesn't even melt the flippin solder when I
try to tin the tip.

I wonder if you're trying to use lead-free solder with an iron
which wasn't designed for it and isn't up to it?

So, any recommendations for a decent iron?

If that's the only thing you're going to use it for in the next
5 years, I would suggest buying another cheap one. I don't think
they normally fail very often -- you were just unlucky.

If you really want a good one, they cost. I have a Weller TCP
which I bought when I was at University, and over 25 years
later, it's still brilliant. You can still buy it -- over £50
when I last looked (was nothing like that much when I was a
student!).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]