I was flipping throught the sales papers this morning, and found on the Pep Boys paper the Cold Heat Cordless Soldering Iron. I remember this being advertised on TV some time last year. I haven’t heard anything else about it.
Has anyone tried to use this for model railroading purposes? Does it work at all?
The cold heat iron actually works pretty well, as long as you stick to smaller stuff. I’ve used it to solder small wires to circuit boards, etc. and it works fine. However, for bigger jobs (soldering rail, etc) it just can’t do it.
Well, no!
A friend say the infomercial and bought one, if you going to solder 22 or 24 gauge wires together it’ll do that. But it isn’t near enough to solder a lead wire to the rail, or anything else of substance.
I had thought of buying one to try on sensitive stuff, where you don’t want to hear something up too much but decided to save my money!
You have to ask yourself, When was the last time you bought something off the TV and where happy with it? I’ve heard the same reveiws as above.
I’m actually surprised that it works at all.
So, for doing jobs, such as wiring a locomotive’s lights or a DCC board, it works; but for doing track work, get a real soldering iron.
Well, Pep Boys has it for about $15 if I’m not mistaken, maybe I’ll considered it for locomotive jobs.
I would not use it.
1- I think it is too puny.
2- You want to solder with as much HEAT as safe for the material you are bonding
3- Electrical currents might be able to damage the computer onboard the locomotive
I dont know about the rest of the stuff but that is my thinking.
I prefer a solder gun that plugs into the wall and generated alot of heat. Get in, solder and get out using heat sinks if needed.
You’d be better off going to Radio Shack and spending your $15 for a real soldering iron. A 30 Watt pencil type isn’t going to cost you that much and it will be hot enough to solder much more than just 28 or smaller gauge wire, and it will probably last far longer than a silly gimmick that has been hawked on cable TV.
Save your money and buy a good 40-watt pencil for delicate / circuit board work and the biggest gun you can afford for most everything else. Weller is a good brand, available most everywhere. The cold heat is a gimmick.
Jim
I have a dual temp soldering gun and a soldering pen for the small stuff. However when I was at Home Depot the other day and saw they had it for 19.00 so I got one. Frankly I was surprised that it actually worked. You have to have the split tip eactly bridging metal or it will not get hot. After a little practice it worked fine. It is a fine tool for delicate work like speaker wires and such. It gets hot instantly so the surrounding area doesn’t get overly hot. Unlike a regular tool the entire surrounding area gets hot before the solder melts. With this you are off and on in a matter of two seconds or so. So in that respect i will keep it on for the small delicate stuff. I have used it to install four speakers so far and about a half dozen wires on some Peco twin coil micro switches. How long it will last I have no idea but for now it seems to be all it is said to be.
Terry[8D]
is this soldering iron any good?
i dont know who made it.
GEARHEAD426
[8]
Save your money gents. My son gave me one for Christmas in 2004. I have tried to find an application that it would actually work. To date none have come to pass. It is a novel idea but lacks the power or has a narrow enough tip to be worth while. I’ll stick to a good pencil gun or a resistance gun to do the job.
It looks like a pencil type, maybe 25-40 watt with a pistol grip. Looks good to me.
Jim
If you are going to do DCC decoder work consider the 15 watt pencil iron at Radio Shack. The biggest thing about this iron is that it is GROUDED. You should only use a grounded iron (double insulated is NOT the same) for delicate electronics work. A regular iron will work fine for rail and general loco wiring. Remember that a static electric charge will kill an electronic piece of equipment such as a decoder (the IC CHIP) and a grounded iron will prevent that. It has an actual 3 prong eletrical cord.
By the way, heat is not cold![^]
home depot had it for $19 ’
I did not get it, on the ad it shows some tiny wire
dont look to powerfull
K
Scott,
Don’t buy it. For around $1300.00 you can get a great resistance soldering iron. It will work with anything. For another $750.00 you can get the extra tips. NO KIDDING. My neighbor has one and I tried to use it, it’s a real piece of junk. Listen to the others and get a good one. I can’t imagine anyone buying anything on an infomercial. They real in the real suckers.
I agree. It’s just a gimmick. I’ll stick with my old soldering iron. It hasn’t let me down yet…
Tracklayer
I used it for soldering my toggle switches on my control panel and it worked fine. The only draw back was that the batteries got used after about 50 solders. For a couple of quick solders it’s great in that you don’t need to wait for a typical soldering iron to heat up. I bought it with no regrets.
My son gave me one for Christmas, it is for small wiring jobs and is not advertised as heavy duty.
Works great for control panel wiring and feeder to bus. Need LOTS of batteries!!
My friend has one and it didnt work for track work either.
Victor
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]