New soldering tool???

[mbshaw]

Just wanted to mention that I saw a commercial for a cordless soldering iron. It claims to heat to 800 degrees in a matter of seconds and runs off 4 AA batteries.

Its hard for me to imagine that 4 AA batteries can produce enough energy to create 800 degrees. But then again I never have understood electricity and resistenance enough to say for sure.

Anyway here is the url: www.coldheattools.com It sells for $19.99 +S/H

If anybody has one or has tried something similar let me know if it does the job.

[Anonymous]

My mother said she saw an infomocail for something like that. An iron that heats and cools real fast. That's aboutt all I heard. But I thinking if it heats and cools like it says itt would be a great thing to have. From the limited solderinig I've done I think it would make it a lot easier. I'm probably wrong though. atleast it would cut down the proabality ofo getting burned.

Andrew Miller

[raysaron]

Seems to me the applications for model railroaders would be where you wanted to apply soldering heat for a limited time--soldering rail joints without melting the plastic ties. Might be worth a try.

Ray

[dknelson]

How inconvenient is it, really, to plug in a traditional iron or gun? It would be pretty frustrating to be in the middle of a delicate soldering job, say soldering the end railings and ladders for a caboose (just to mention one project I have had on hold for a long time) only to have the batteries run out of juice at a crucial moment.
I suppose there are situations where you need to solder and are far away from the nearest plug. Track wiring might be one example.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

I agree I didn't like the battery idea. If it had a plug you could use it would be a lot better. Other than that the features seem to be nice.
Andrew Miller

[cacole]

I don't think this device would generate enough heat for a long enough period of time to heat rail to soldering temperature. Even a corded soldering iron cools off significantly when you touch the tip to the rail because of the volume of metal in the rail, and the rail's tendency to act as a heat sink. It might be good for soldering decoders into locomotives, where you are only touching two very small wires at any one time, and not in rapid succession.

The tip temperature that this new device reaches is close to what every other iron reaches. A soldering iron's wattage rating does not change the tip temperature, but is a measure of its "recovery time" -- that is, the time it takes the tip to re-heat to soldering temperature once it has been touched to the item being soldered.

[cwclark]

a weller gun heats to 900 degrees and I'm sold on it....I just bought a new one. (the old one lasted for 32 years before it finally went out)...I've always stuck to tools that are reliable ...i've tried the "latest and greatest " tools in the past and usually return to the ones that have the best performance and reliability..the new soldering gun may work, but I'm sold on the weller gun...Chuck[:D]

[nfmisso]

A temperature specification does not mean anything. Wattage is the measure of energy per unit time. (Joules per second).

An AA battery will put out around 100mA (0.1A) at 1.2V (1.2V NiCad or NiH or 1.5 Alkaline), which is 0.12W, so four will give you about a half watt. Even if I am off by a factor of ten, and it will do 1A; results in 5W for four......

5W is fine for fine electronics work, like building your own decoders, but not enough for other MR work.

Big low wattage irons work by having a huge thermal mass the cools very slowly. As noted above, this one cools down very quickly.

[mbshaw]

Thanks for the insight folks!!

[mbshaw]

Thanks for the insight folks!!