"Andrew VK3BFA" wrote in message
om...
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...

3. LOOK at tip, see if mangnet thingo at bottom has fallen of - if so,
buy new tip (and after all the years youve had it, I wonder if it
could solder anything except 2 wires together, my tips last about 3
months on average, I buy them by the half dozen). If tip defective,
completely dismantle iron and remove magnet from switch assembly.

I have heard this from some other user - but I have tips that last years -
BUT I
only use the 700 degree tips.

4. If tip OK (go on, be a devil, buy a new one anyway....) then switch
faulty. Buy new one.

A spare tip should always be available on the bench. I just repaired an
older WTCPN station
an the college student had placed an "ET" tip (aka tips are all the same
right! - wrong)
from the Weller EC1000/EC2000/WES50/WES51 models.
Glowed cherry red -- changing to the proper tip -- corrected problem.

5. Exception to item 4 - if you have done bugger all maintenance to
your iron, clean the garbage out of the barrel - it is rare for
switches to fail "on" (never had one do it, as a matter of fact, but
have only been using Wellers for 20 years so it COULD happen...) - use
a bamboo satay skewer to clean out the crap, then follow procedure 2.

I saw my first internally shorted SW60 last year (although I think the user
had wacked it against a hard surface to
cause this type of damage). I also have seen a "kinked" spring -- near as I
can tell -- originally assembled that way --
over a decade earlier. I never saw a heater fail as shorted (dead short -
but not heating) until last year -- all previous ones
failed as "open". See enough stations and you see many failures, bad
operating practices and unique equipment abuse.

Hope this helps,

de VK3BFA Andrew (at 50, an "official old grump")