[TowerTalk] Soldering Stations (Was: Coax Connectors)

[Bill Coleman AA4LR]

On 3/25/97 8:18 PM, n2nt at n2nt@hiway1.exit109.com wrote:

>As far as soldering connectors, inside or outside, there is only one 
>EASY way...
>Use a TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED soldering station.
>With the right tip, the solder will flow quickly and easily, eutectic
>or not.

Years ago, I saw the most impressive demonstration of a 25 watt soldering 
station.

The tip was heated with RF energy, so the pigtail was small and light 
(being miniature coax with a teflon jacket). The iron had a handle with 
replaceable tips, which you just pulled out and jammed in.

***ALL*** of the heat was in the furthest end of the tip. Salesman did a 
demo where he took a piece of copper clad board, dropped a penny on it, 
put the iron to the penny and then applied solder. In 15 seconds, he was 
pushing the (now tinned) penny around in a molten pool of solder. Remove 
the iron, and the penny was soldered in place.

He then reached over with his bare hand and withdrew the tip from the 
handle! Since all the heat was in the tip, and got transferred to the 
work, there was practically no heating of the body of the tip, just the 
end.

This device had several tips, including those that could solder/unsolder 
an entire DIP package at once. 

Temperature of the tip was precisely controlled within a few degrees. You 
could hold the iron on a PC board trace for hours and not separate the 
trace from the board.

Like I said, this was very impressive. Of course, at $1000 a pop, they 
were a bit pricy. I'm sure such an iron could easily solder all four 
holes of a PL-259. 

I have no idea who the manufacturer was, as this was long ago.





Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr@radio.org
Quote: "Not in a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901


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