On 12/4/2015 4:10 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Don Y" wrote in message
...

Possible. I think Wahl made the clippers we used to groom the
puppiemonsters.
And, this looked a lot like that!

The Wahl company that made the clippers made the soldering iron I had. They
started out making clippers (saw the first one a few years ago when I
changed barbers) and later made the soldering iron.

OK. Mine was red (if that means anything) :

I had a soldering gun for the quick jobs if I needed a lot of heat, but for
a quick PC repair the gun was too much of a good thing where the iron was
just right.

I have a couple of "soldering pencils/stations" that are temperature
controlled (one allows me to actually *set* the temperature; the
others have the temperature "encoded" in the replaceable tip that
is currently selected) that I use for most work. I can adapt them
(by selecting the appropriate tip) for the type of work that I'm doing.

E.g., soldering thru-hole components usually works well with a small tip;
less bulk, less thermal mass required, etc. OTOH, sodering the metal
mounting tabs for, e.g., a USB connector *into* a PCB needs a lot more
heat in a lot larger area -- so, a bigger tip.

I have a hot air iron (Leister) that I use for surface-mount components.

And, a Weller "coat hanger" gun that I use for soldering really heavy
gauge wire, etc.

(I call it "coat hanger" cuz you can use a wire coat hanger bent in the
appropriate shape as a heating element, in a pinch -- crude!)

Years ago, I had a heavy soldering "wand" that was suitable for sweating
joints on pipe! :-/