A word (or a few) of caution!

[Rod Johnson]

The first picture is of an inexpensive 150W soldering iron with a fairly heavy tip,  which is very useful for soldering coax connectors.  One problem with the cheap iron, is that it has no temperature control.  It just gets hotter and hotter if not used, until the barrel gets red hot.

  The heavy tip retains heat because of it's mass, and the broad tip transfers it to a connector body very well.

   The second photo shows what can happen it it is left plugged into a power outlet, and somehow the rocker switch gets turned on inadvertently.

   This happened to me last week.  

  I had been in and out of my radio room many times while sorting and organizing 'stuff' in another space.

  Apparently, I managed to flip the rocker switch ON.

   Later, while outside, I began smelling something like burning plastic or rubber. After looking around, I guessed it must have been coming from a nearby house.

   As I went  back into the radio room, I found the odor quite strong, and discovered the counter under the soldering iron was smoking, and a cardboard box which was on top of the iron had a large scorched hole burned through the side, and a collection of small hookup wire pieces had a lot of melted insulation.  

I guess, in the process of moving and sorting some of the piles on the bench, one of parts trays wound up on the tip if the unused soldering iron.

  Somehow later, I had inadvertently managed to turn ON the soldering iron, and I am very grateful I was working quite close by.  

  Needless to say, I was VERY lucky to have found it when I did.

Please leave your soldering irons on some sort of a stand, when not in use; or if too large, unplug them.

   

Rod J

[Paul Butzi]

I have my soldering station plugged into a timer I bought off amazon.  I can set the timer for up to 2.5 hours, in increments of 1/2 hour.  Generally I just hit the button to give me half an hour, and if I run off the end of that, I hit 1/2 hour again.

-p W7PFB

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[Rod Johnson]

Paul,

  That is a great suggestion.   It might even keep me from burning up a soldering pencil tip once every few years!

    I have similar timers, (such as for bathroom fans) , that could work in the ham shack environment, IF I remembered to plug into that timer.

  Maybe I should make that particular heavy soldering iron, and a timer, into one assembly.

  Rod J

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[Paul Butzi]

It’s really saved my bacon a bunch of times.  works a treat!

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