My boss shows up with two old soldering irons today, one is a small iron
probably used for stained glass work but the other was rather strange. The
business end of the iron was about an inch in diameter and hollow. When
this is unscrewed, the handle end has a (for lack of a better description)
firing pin. This is actuated by a spring loaded plunger in the handle.

Any one know about this tool?

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.

Sounds suspiciously like "scope" irons
These ran off a 3V 30A transformer, and used some form of arc to heat the
tip.
There is a small element which is moved back and forwards by a ring, or
"trigger bar" depending upon which model it is.
These heat up FAST, and the real skill in using one is the manual control
of the duty cycle on the transformer. (typically 1:30 from memory)
I have the small orange microelectronics model (with transformer etc) but
found it difficult to use when teaching others. I use it only when I know
there is no chance of someone else picking up the iron and cooking the
transformer.

If you need parts, there are places still offering them.

Des bromilow
Brisbane
OZ

"Roger Shoaf" wrote in message
...
My boss shows up with two old soldering irons today, one is a small iron
probably used for stained glass work but the other was rather strange.
The
business end of the iron was about an inch in diameter and hollow. When
this is unscrewed, the handle end has a (for lack of a better description)
firing pin. This is actuated by a spring loaded plunger in the handle.

Any one know about this tool?

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube,
then
they come up with this striped stuff.

"Roger Shoaf" wrote in message
...
My boss shows up with two old soldering irons today, one is a small iron
probably used for stained glass work but the other was rather strange.
The
business end of the iron was about an inch in diameter and hollow. When
this is unscrewed, the handle end has a (for lack of a better description)
firing pin. This is actuated by a spring loaded plunger in the handle.

Any one know about this tool?

--

Roger Shoaf

Maybe a solder sucker?

Scp

It really is a firing pin! This type iron used a chemical heating
element that was placed into the chamber and started "burning" with the
plunger that punctured the end of the cartridge to begin heating the
tip. You had one chance to get your soldering done while the cartridge
lasted and then you had to wait for it to cool down to change to a new
one. It would heat about 10 min. They were prone to overheating and
the cartridges were unstable. My company used them for years for field
work but finally junked them and used vehicle powered irons (converter
from 12v). I think the last one was junked about 1960.

Jim

Roger Shoaf wrote:
My boss shows up with two old soldering irons today, one is a small iron
probably used for stained glass work but the other was rather strange. The
business end of the iron was about an inch in diameter and hollow. When
this is unscrewed, the handle end has a (for lack of a better description)
firing pin. This is actuated by a spring loaded plunger in the handle.

Any one know about this tool?

These were used by Western Electric by their central office
installers.When I used one in the 70's you could still get the
cartridges for it.The cartridges had a tendency to expand and stick in
the housing.It had a heat capacity of at least 100 watts comparable to
an AC unit.Even if you compared it to a modern gas soldering iron it
would throw out more heat.We used them to solder connectors to the main
DC busbar.I should have permanently borrowed one,they worked that well.