What is the technology like today, in 2007?
What is your experience?
I wrote my experiences here. Battery powered soldering pencils
Joe
I bought one of those double "A" pen soldering gizmos a year or so ago and I ended up giving it away. Tried to use it to solder my feeder wires to the track, just never seemed to get a good enough soldering joint, what a pain. The soldering iron is one tool that I have no problem keeping wired.
About 20 years ago we had a battery-powered Wahl iron that worked quite well. You'd think in a machine shop floor there'd be plenty of power - well there was, but most of it was high voltage multiple phase. We used it to make repairs on the CNC and EDM machines, and it worked very well. Even witht he lttle light to illuminate the workspace, like on a big soldering gun, it ran for a reasonable amount of time on a charge. Since the state of the art was NiCad batteries back then, once it was dead it took a long time to recharge, and it did not have a swapable battery pack like my cordless drill does. We had a butane powered iron as a backup, just in case.
When it comes to tools - cheap anything can be worse than no tool at all. For a once in a rare while use, you can probably get away with cheap no-names, but if you want to tool to use on a regular basis AND last more than a month, the higher cost of a known brand is a worthwhile expense.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Michael Click Here to view my photos at RailPictures.Net!
My Photos at RRPictures.Net: Click Here
Like anything else, you get what you pay for.........
That said, the Wahl soldering irons are very good. They hold a charge and are quick to heat up. Usually you don't need to hold them on for a long time just to solder a lead wire on, or even to solder the rails together in a rail joiner.
Micro Mark sells these and they do last a long time.
cf7
cf7 wrote:Like anything else, you get what you pay for.........
I just looked at the Wahl 7700 at a website. I think I may try that one as I really want to use a cordless. Is that the one you have?
Thanks
MO
Are you speaking from personal experience with this Wahl product?
Thanks,