[TowerTalk] Reliable QUALITY Soldering Gun? & Solder? reply de K0FF

[Pete Smith]

At 08:56 AM 9/23/00 -0500, K0FF wrote:
>
>For tower related soldering :
>
>The 140 W gun is not big enough in the first place. A Weller D5500, 240/325
>W is an excellent choice for cold/windy conditions and will make a good
>PL-259 even in the snow. When you talk about reliability, I still have one
>made in the old brown Bakelite , must be 50 years old. 

Whatever you do, stay away from the Radio Shack 64-2187.  The switch on
mine has been flakey since I got it, it takes forever to heat up, and the
max rating is only 230W.  A lousy deal.

I have one of the 140-watt Wellers, and have found it to work just fine.
Yes, the nuts need to be tightened every few weeks but I've found that
problem is materially reduced if you make the bends at the ends of the tip
just as sharp as you can.  It does very good PL-259s, but NOT in the snow.

73, Pete Smith N4ZR

Contesting is ... Extreme Radio

The World Contest Station Database 
is back up and running at
http://www.qsl.net/n4zr 



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