Doug Smith W9WI ) writes:


First thing I'd suspect, especially if you're having trouble soldering
PL-259s with a 230W gun, is that the tips aren't making adequate contact
with the secondary of the transformer, the metal tubes coming out of the
handle. At the risk of stating the obvious, those little nuts at the
end of the tubes are good and tight, right?

And maybe more important, the nuts can be tight but the copper is still
not making good contact. Loosening the nuts and retightening is important
in this case.

I've not bought a tip for mine in thirty years (which means I only bought
them for a couple of years). Someone gave me a yard or so of multi-strand
wire left over from a TV transmitter installation, the punchline being
that each strand was the diameter of the wire used for the soldering
gun tips. I measured the real tip, and used it as a template to cut
the wire to the needed size. It's all worked fine, and the fact
that it's not plated doesn't really matter because the tips don't cost
me a thing. That yard of wire is still supplying the tips.


Michael VE2BVW