On Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:40:41 -0800, Gunner
wrote:

On Wed, 02 Jan 2013 06:59:09 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:19:52 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Larry Jaques wrote:

I don't remember if I posted this here yet or not, so...

I bought a ColdHeat soldering iron and it came yesterday. When I
tried soldering a couple of 18ga stranded copper wires together,
it failed miserably. It didn't seem to get hot enough to melt the
solder into the strands at all, although it melted about 1.5" of thin
solder.

Tips to get it to work (on the 14ga wire I bought it for) would be
appreciated. Would liquid flux help at all? It seemed like the
carbonized tip got nice and hot but the wire didn't.


It won't. It's the soldering iron Ron Popiel would have invented,
right after his "Pocket Fisherman" It's a cheap attempt at resistance
soldering that just doesn't work on anything thicker than 24 AWG.

Thanks, guys. I'd hoped it would work. I'll haul up an extension
cord and the trusty Weller pistol grip for the job after all.

Gunner, my buddy Terry has a BluePoint iron like yours which works
well, but this is in a semi-dark enclosed attic with puffy rockwool
insulation all around, even if it isn't flammable. I have a butane
iron from HFT and it works well, but I'm not taking that up into the
attic with me, either.

Why..you cant figure out how to make a safe "rest" for the iron?

Hell..use a bread pan with an inch of kitty litter in the bottom.

My attic's tight, with a low peak, 4'. I didn't want to drag a cord
around, over and under ducts, and now you're talking about taking a
lit flame and pan of fly-everywheres up there? Brilliant!

--
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.