I have managed to come by an old Vigor resistance soldering machine.
It's the 1500 watt SM-800 model in case you are interested.

Fixed a few of the small problems, like making up a stainless steel tip, and
have started to play about with it.

Sort of neat to see paper clips burn but this is a new experience for me so
I have been trying to get a better fix on how to use this equipment
properly.

I have done some web searching and have improved my understanding but
questions remain.

If anyone would be kind enough to fill in some of the blanks I would
appreciate it.

Wondering what I should watch out for like...

I haven't seen anything that talks about eye protection other than just wear
goggles. But every once in a while the thing arcs.

American Beauty seems to be a "name" in this area and I have looked at
their site and down loaded some of the video clips. Any other companies that
I should check out.

One site recommends using Supersafe Superior #30 flux. Other suggestions?
This is the web site: http://www.ccis.com/home/hn/

The reason for using carbon tips is because they don't transmit heat the
way stainless does?

Some sites have suggested pulling the anode from old batteries. I remember
doing this as a kid but I now wonder if this is such a great idea.

The tweezer tips that I see seem to have both the + and - leads attached.
That way you just clip on and the tweezers just heat what's between them.

I'd like to make up something like these but don't have a good fix on the
design. Especially how to keep both tips electrically and thermally
insulated from each other.

At this stage, I'll admit that this machine is mostly a tool in search of a
problem. But one thing that I would like to do is use it to roll my own
battery packs for robots that I build. I have done this with regular solder
gun and appreciate that you must NOT put too much heat into the battery.

Books?

Web sites?

Any other tips? (Bad pun intended! :-)

Thanks for any help.

DOC

Buy my junk! http://www3.sympatico.ca/doc/robotone/for-sale.html

Go to www.mcmaster.com and type resistance soldering into the search
field. They sell a wide variety of tips and handles. The carbon tips are
used because solder doesn't readily stick to them and they are less
likely to mar plated surfaces.

DOC wrote:

I have managed to come by an old Vigor resistance soldering machine.
It's the 1500 watt SM-800 model in case you are interested.

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 14:17:47 -0500, "DOC" wrote:

The reason for using carbon tips is because they don't transmit heat the
way stainless does?

Sort of. It's because the carbon tip doesn't get hot except where
you're soldering. Where I used to use them is on aircraft cannon plugs
and relays. If you have to resolder one wire in the middle of a 128
pin cannon plug, you can't jam a regular soldering iron down among all
those close packed wires without burning them. But the carbon tip is
cold except where it touches the metal of the pin you're soldering.