[TowerTalk] Soldering Iron

[BRENT BAUM]

I have a big old "tinner" that was part of my father's tool kit at Boeing Aircraft Company (couldn't let Hughes have all the free advertising) where he was an electronics technician in the developmental division. (He also built moon buggy components for Boeing). It has a pyramidal tip about 1/2 inch across each face and heats a PL-259 body in 3-5 seconds, and the pointed tip helps heat the braid without melting the inner dielectric. The downside is the many, many minutes to come to full heat or cool down.
K7MEI, Brent> Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 14:38:03 -0800> From: stevek at jmr.com> To: Charlie at TheGallos.com; ranchorobbo at gmail.com> CC: towertalk at contesting.com> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Soldering Iron> > > > Another wonderful tool that I USED to have access to that makes soldering UHF or other BIG connectors simple - see if you can get yourself a nice resistance soldering rig (or one can be made from a filament transformer) - take the carbon electrode tweezers, clamp around the body, hit the foot peddle, and the connector is up to temp in maybe 2-5 seconds> > ::Indeed! I have one of those. It's a 900W resistance soldering setup, which was probably well over $1K "new" but purchased at the TRW Swap Meet for $75. It had (still has) a "Property of Hughes Aircraft Company" asset tag on it. :-)> > Works like a charm. Doesn't even take two seconds for a PL-259 body, more like one second.> > WB2WIK/6> _______________________________________________> > > > _______________________________________________> TowerTalk mailing list> TowerTalk at contesting.com> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk