Cold Heat Solderer a Bust

[danrunner]

I just bought and returned my Cold Heat solderer today. It wouldn't tack a 16 gauge wire to an o-27 pice of track. Terrible. I guess that was just too much for the old girl.

Any opinions or experiences with it? I'd like to hear from others.

I returned it to Radio Shack for a corded one. It didn't break a sweat laying down a bead.

Dan

PS And YES I fluxed.

[Anonymous]

I ordered one off of one of those TV commercials. Smart move, huh? [banghead]

I would have had better luck using a magnifying glass and sunlight. [:(]

Chunked it. [:(!]

[Anonymous]

i bought one of those too and returned it right away. the guy in home depot was so shoked that i was returning it, he said that he got nothing but positive feedback about it. IT STINKS!

[mitchelr]

Thanks for the heads up. I had seen that unit advertised and I had come close to ordering it. Something told me it sounded too good to be true. Based on your experience, it was too good to be true.

Just my [2c][2c]/

[thor]

Wow, thanks for the warning guys. I, too was seduced by that advertising even though my wife, who does jewellery making, sensibly pointed out that "it seems to go against common sense to have something that behaves like that. It can't be much good if it cools down that fast, how hot could it get?".

While we're on the subject, are those micro-torch things any good? They look real neat and I quite fancy one but I held off because I figured the gas reservoir was too small.

[spankybird]

I have one and for very light soldering if the wires are tined, it does just fine. But remember it is for light and small areas. It is great on PC boards.

[FJ and G]

my buddy egged me on to get one; but thru the forum I found that people have had bad experiences soldering anything larger than a #24 wire.

Talk about HYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll stick to a soldering iron or my butane torch or if I want to kick it up; the propane torch

[danrunner]

Spankybird,

I guess what one deems "light soldering" is the issue. I thought hobby/anything over 14 gauge to be light. For others, I guess they think 24 gauge is light. Semantics aside, for the train hobbyist, it's a no-go. I think of heavy soldering as breaking out the benzomatic torch and joining some pipe in the basement.

Dan