Cool soldering iron

[Revwillie]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/69d3/?cpg=edm7H

Wow, I'm going to have to get one of these. It would have really come in handy for the remote projects I've done.

[The Robman]

Very nice. If you get one, let us know how you like it. I might just give it a try myself if you like it.

[johann83]

Sounds intriguing... And for $20 it might be useful to have for those times when you need to solder something away from your desk. Of course, that all assumes that it works as adveritsed (and I'm not saying that it doesn't). As Rob said, do be sure to let us know the results if you pick one up.

Matt

[micj]

While it may heat up to 800 degreess fast, the quality of the solder joint is based upon the ability to heat the whole joint (not just the tip of the iron) to the proper temperature, and then to allow the joint to cool without movement so you don't get a "cold" solder joint.

I recommend a temperature controlled soldering iron capable of dumping as much as 50 watts into a joint (to keep the temperature at the correct point).

I use a Cooper-Weller WES51 and have used something similar since 1975 with extremely good results. A soldering iron with too little thermal mass will never produce the correct condition for good solder joints. Solder temperature of the joint is critical.

BTW, the standby power is something like 5 watts (close to nothing).

Regards,

Ira

[Revwillie]

Sounds intriguing... And for $20 it might be useful to have for those times when you need to solder something away from your desk.
Matt

That's every soldering project for me. I have a workbench in the garage, but it's ten feet from the nearest outlet. I have extension cords every which way. Unlike most of the stuff at QVC or thinkgeek, this is a decent price if it works the way it's supposed to. There's no way to know without actually getting one.

[jherrick]

Did anyone get one of these? I have been reading mixed reviews online, but would trust the experiences of someone on this forum over any of those.
Jim

[Revwillie]

Did anyone get one of these? I have been reading mixed reviews online, but would trust the experiences of someone on this forum over any of those.
Jim

I meant to. I put it on my thinkgeek wish list and sent a link to the folks who never know what to buy me for birthdays and such. I ended up getting more neckties that I never wear

I still plan on getting one. Actually, I might need it to rig up an audio connection for my wife's ipod mini soon. At least that's how I will justify the purchase of yet another geek toy.

[The Robman]

Nope, I'm still using my $8 15w Radio Shack iron, though I'm probably on my 5th or 6th tip already.

[Revwillie]

whoaah! I noticed that thinkgeek has been out of stock. Harborfreight had them, but then today I did a froogle search and found out that radioshack carries them. No. 64-2102

[Mark Pierson]

radioshack carries them. No. 64-2102

I just picked up one of these at the Shack. I haven't tried it on anything important yet, but just playing around with it here for the last few minutes it seems to be pretty decent.

The claims of instant heat and cool are mostly accurate. The tip is a bit big (i.e. wide) so I'm not sure how it'll work on tiny circuits, but other than that, it's comfortable in the hand and relatively easy to use. There's also a white LED that illuminates the workarea quite nicely.

Maybe I'll just have to throw together another JP1 cable to really test it out! 8)

[Revwillie]

I got one at radioshack over the weekend. I think it would take some getting used to, but I really like the size and weight of it. It would be very easy to take out to the car for quick wiring. I tried just soldering a small bead on the base of a lightbulb, but it was probably a bad experiment. I'm used to tinning the tip and then letting the flux from my flux pen do the hard work. I can't see a way to tin this tip. It only gets hot when there is a conductor bridging the two electrode halves and if there is a little solder in between the electrodes, it falls out quickly. I think I need a few un-rushed hours to just experiment with it. The instructions are somewhat brief. I would almost want a video tutorial to see what i'm supposed to be doing.

[mdburkey]

Has anyone tested one of these out yet?

Right now I have a nice Weller variable temp solder station but its not quite as precise as I'd like and it takes longer than I like to heat up and cool down.

From the description, it sounds like this "tip only" heating may use principles similar to those used by the really nice Metcal units (which I keep wanting to get but keep putting off due to the price).

[Mark Pierson]

My local paper today had a Home Depot insert that has the ColdHeat soldering iron listed for $19.97.

[flynnguy]

It's worthless... I took it back. It might be good for circuitboards but I haven't done any circuitboard soldering with it. Instead I got a butane powered soldering iron which works great. With the cold heat soldering tool It was very hard to solder two wires together. Part of the reason was that you couldn't really instantly heat up both wires.

So I took it back to ratshack and got this butane soldering iron instead. Fills up with regular butane like a lighter and has a flint tool that doubles as a cap. It came with a soldering iron tip and a blowtorch tip. It even has a nice little temperature regulator that you slide back and forth to increase or decrease the heat. Heats up pretty quickly too.

The cold heat soldering iron was also pretty awkward to hold.

[zaphod7501]

If you hunt around , the propane iron has other tips available. ( Different size tips , hot air jet for heat shrink tubing or surface mount reflow soldering , hot knife for plastic cutting or forming) I've had one for years , great for automobile work , crawling around the attic or crawl space , etc.