On Nov 1, 4:23*pm, Grumpy The Mule wrote:
We had one of these irons at work and replaced it with a WTCP
station.

I cannot say how much I love the WTCP's for being a rugged reliable
workhorse.

Tim N3QE

Tim Shoppa wrote:
On Nov 1, 4:23 pm, Grumpy The Mule wrote:
We had one of these irons at work and replaced it with a WTCP
station.

I cannot say how much I love the WTCP's for being a rugged reliable
workhorse.

Tim N3QE
I went through two WTCP's. They worked ok, but eventually got
intermittent and would not stay hot. I now have a WES51/PES51 setup.
No more changing tips to change temperature, just dial it in. No led
display, but the dial is calibrated close enough. Also the soldering
pencil is lighter and less bulky than the WTCP was. Still I did like
the WTCP's all in one construction over the two piece (power supply and
iron stand) of the 'ES51. The Coper group has destroyed Weller. I
collect old Weller guns whenever I find them, the new ones SUCK.

Howdy,

I've managed several labs where we had dozens of WTCP stations
in daily use.

The only problem I found with WTCP is the connector between the
base and the cord. I usually remove the connector and hardwire
the cord at the base. It causes the intermittent operation that
you've decribed.

I couldn't agree with you more concerning the damage Cooper
did to the Weller brand. Since they moved production to Mexico
the quality control is nonexistant. Some of the design changes
which I believe were intended as cost reductions were ill advised
too. The old Weller soldering guns are indestructable.

At home I have a Pace soldering/desoldering station and a Metcal
SMT station. I've no complaints other than the price.

At work we have a Hakko soldering/deslodering station and it's a
real work horse. We also have a Metcal SMT station which is a bit
fussy but it has been though hell and back. We just bought a couple
Pace ST70 soldering stations for general purpose work. I think we will
buy a few more, they're great.

It's too bad that Wahl quit selling Sterling soldering irons in
the US. It's an odd little iron but I love it. Thirty years old
and it's still the first iron I reach for in my shop. The original
tip is perfect! I called Wahl about buying a second iron and no one
there knew what I was talking about. The most clever feature is an
aluminum washer between the tip and body of the iron. The difference
in coefficient of expansion keeps the tip from seizing. It says made
in England on the body. Google was no help... sigh.


73,
Grumpy


ken scharf wrote in
:

Tim N3QE
I went through two WTCP's. They worked ok, but eventually got
intermittent and would not stay hot. I now have a WES51/PES51 setup.
No more changing tips to change temperature, just dial it in. No led
display, but the dial is calibrated close enough. Also the soldering
pencil is lighter and less bulky than the WTCP was. Still I did like
the WTCP's all in one construction over the two piece (power supply and
iron stand) of the 'ES51. The Coper group has destroyed Weller. I
collect old Weller guns whenever I find them, the new ones SUCK.

"Grumpy The Mule" wrote in message
...

I couldn't agree with you more concerning the damage Cooper
did to the Weller brand. Since they moved production to Mexico
the quality control is nonexistant. Some of the design changes
which I believe were intended as cost reductions were ill advised
too. The old Weller soldering guns are indestructable.


I have the Weller guns in 3 differant wattage ranges. I think this is one
of each that they made. The 8200 I have is over 40 years old. The middle
wattage gun is one that does not have the hollow nuts that screw into the
end of the rods comming out of the gun. It is labled intermittent duty
where the other 2 do not have this lable. It seems to be lighter than the
smaller rated gun also. I don't use them much any more except to put the
connectors on the PL-259.
I really like the guns for the bigger stuff the pencles will not work. I
even used the 8200 on some of the older and larger PC boards.

Grumpy The Mule wrote:

I've managed several labs where we had dozens of WTCP stations in daily
use.

The only problem I found with WTCP is the connector between the base
and the cord. I usually remove the connector and hardwire the cord at
the base. It causes the intermittent operation that you've decribed.

I couldn't agree with you more concerning the damage Cooper did to the
Weller brand. Since they moved production to Mexico the quality
control is nonexistant. Some of the design changes which I believe
were intended as cost reductions were ill advised too. The old Weller
soldering guns are indestructable.


I wouldn't be without my TCP, and spares are still available. Cooper
Tools in the UK give excellent customer support (though that's the
people, not the product).

At home I have a Pace soldering/desoldering station and a Metcal SMT
station. I've no complaints other than the price.

At work we have a Hakko soldering/deslodering station and it's a real
work horse. We also have a Metcal SMT station which is a bit fussy but
it has been though hell and back. We just bought a couple Pace ST70
soldering stations for general purpose work. I think we will buy a few
more, they're great.

Also take a look at the JBC range of soldering stations. They are beyond
my amateur budget but professional friends rave about them - they seem
to do everything the Metcal range can (and more) without the complex and
expensive RF heating. There's a video presentation at:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v2hLFmHTQvo

It's too bad that Wahl quit selling Sterling soldering irons in the US.
It's an odd little iron but I love it. Thirty years old and it's still
the first iron I reach for in my shop. The original tip is perfect! I
called Wahl about buying a second iron and no one there knew what I was
talking about. The most clever feature is an aluminum washer between
the tip and body of the iron. The difference in coefficient of
expansion keeps the tip from seizing. It says made in England on the
body. Google was no help... sigh.

If you can post a photograph on a website, someone here in the UK may be
able to identify it.


--

73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

Howdy,

Thank you for the suggestion. I have posted an image of the
iron at www.dwave.net/~twomules/sterling_iron.jpg

The manufacturer's name is Sterling and it's marked made in
England. The handle is tri-lobular in cross section. In the
handle there is a thermostat which is adjusted by means ofan
allen key and there is a neon bulb indicating the heater status.

I'd like to know if it's still being manufactured.


73,
Grumpy


Ian White GM3SEK wrote in
:

SNIP
If you can post a photograph on a website, someone here in the UK may be
able to identify it.

Grumpy The Mule wrote:
Howdy,

Thank you for the suggestion. I have posted an image of the
iron at www.dwave.net/~twomules/sterling_iron.jpg

The manufacturer's name is Sterling and it's marked made in
England. The handle is tri-lobular in cross section. In the
handle there is a thermostat which is adjusted by means ofan
allen key and there is a neon bulb indicating the heater status.

I'd like to know if it's still being manufactured.


I used to have one of those, but it didn't last as well as yours did so
it's long gone... along with all memory of the name!

Cross-posted to the good people at uk.d-i-y, some of whom have a
bottomless memory about old tools.




--

73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

Ian White GM3SEK wrote:
Grumpy The Mule wrote:
Howdy,

Thank you for the suggestion. I have posted an image of the
iron at www.dwave.net/~twomules/sterling_iron.jpg

The manufacturer's name is Sterling and it's marked made in
England. The handle is tri-lobular in cross section. In the
handle there is a thermostat which is adjusted by means ofan
allen key and there is a neon bulb indicating the heater status.

I'd like to know if it's still being manufactured.


I used to have one of those, but it didn't last as well as yours did so
it's long gone... along with all memory of the name!

Cross-posted to the good people at uk.d-i-y, some of whom have a
bottomless memory about old tools.

Oh boy, do they ever! Thirteen replies already, all heavily laden with
soldering iron nostalgia... this thread will run and run.

One of them was even the right answer. From Jeff Layman:

It's an Oryx 50.

Yes, that's the one I used to have.

The name should be on the opposite side to that shown in the photo. Has
interchangeable tips, is thermostically controlled, and the temperature
is ajustable (up to 400°C), by mans of a hex key (1/16"?) set in a
small plastic handle. I've had mine over 40 years, and it's still
going strong.

Mine doesn't have "Made in England" - just "Model 50; 220-240v. 50w". I
guess the MiE was for the US market, as the iron was made in 24, 50,
115, and 210/250v versions.


A bit of further Googling reveals that the Oryx tradename is still in
use, apparently owned by an Irish company named Portasol which now
specialises in gas-fueled irons (www.portasol.com).



--

73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

Grumpy The Mule wrote:
Howdy,

I've managed several labs where we had dozens of WTCP stations
in daily use.

The only problem I found with WTCP is the connector between the
base and the cord. I usually remove the connector and hardwire
the cord at the base. It causes the intermittent operation that
you've decribed.

I couldn't agree with you more concerning the damage Cooper
did to the Weller brand. Since they moved production to Mexico
the quality control is nonexistant. Some of the design changes
which I believe were intended as cost reductions were ill advised
too. The old Weller soldering guns are indestructable.

At home I have a Pace soldering/desoldering station and a Metcal
SMT station. I've no complaints other than the price.

At work we have a Hakko soldering/deslodering station and it's a
real work horse. We also have a Metcal SMT station which is a bit
fussy but it has been though hell and back. We just bought a couple
Pace ST70 soldering stations for general purpose work. I think we will
buy a few more, they're great.

It's too bad that Wahl quit selling Sterling soldering irons in
the US. It's an odd little iron but I love it. Thirty years old
and it's still the first iron I reach for in my shop. The original
tip is perfect! I called Wahl about buying a second iron and no one
there knew what I was talking about. The most clever feature is an
aluminum washer between the tip and body of the iron. The difference
in coefficient of expansion keeps the tip from seizing. It says made
in England on the body. Google was no help... sigh.


73,
Grumpy

I remember the Wahl 'iso tip' battery irons. Nice portable tool for
field repairs (but useless for field day PL-259 assembly!). Only
problems were battery and tip replacement. The tips would eventually
fall apart as the ceramic insulation surrounding the heating element
cracked.

As for field day, once I figured out how to quickly assemble PL259's
onto RG8U, I got drafted by the radio club to handle this duty at field
day. (Strip back about 4" of outer insulation, tin the braid with a HOT
soldering gun (I used the BIG Weller gun), file down the excess solder,
cut down the braid with a tubing cuter or a razer saw, remove the center
insulation, cut the center conductor to size and tin it, then slip the
coupling ring over the coax and screw on the connector, then solder it
home (with the BIG Weller gun again!). Took about 4 minutes per connector.


ken scharf wrote in
:

Tim N3QE
I went through two WTCP's. They worked ok, but eventually got
intermittent and would not stay hot. I now have a WES51/PES51 setup.
No more changing tips to change temperature, just dial it in. No led
display, but the dial is calibrated close enough. Also the soldering
pencil is lighter and less bulky than the WTCP was. Still I did like
the WTCP's all in one construction over the two piece (power supply and
iron stand) of the 'ES51. The Coper group has destroyed Weller. I
collect old Weller guns whenever I find them, the new ones SUCK.

Howdy,


I kept the iso-tip iron in my briefcase. It heats fast
and I don't regret having bought it. When the batteries
went bad I no longer had a use for it. So it ended up
somewhere... can't remember where. The ceramic fell out
of the tips on me too. I think the engineers at Wahl
should have talked to someone at Cotronics.

I got tired of tightening the tips on the guns and bought
an 80W "pencil." A studly iron, suitable for soldering
sheets of copper and bus bars. For me the next step up
from this is a torch. It's only 80W so at first blush
I expected a higher wattage gun to work better but there's
a lot more thermal mass in the iron. The copper tip is
a slug about 1/2" dia and 1-1/4" lg. It makes fast work
of PL259's.

I like the tubing cutter technique if the coax has enough
braid. Some of the junky stuff I just flood the connector
with solder through the connector's holes and mostly it
works. I've tried wrapping the scant braid with fine wire
first which may help. Buying or scrounging good quality
coax with decent braid coverage is the best answer.

I thought the crimper for PL259's (on RG8 size coax) was
a great idea but after reading some reviews and looking
at the photos of cracks in the connector I'm not so sure.
I thought of buying a set of dies and fixing them to a
hefty arbor press I have in the garage. Though soldering
has proved reliable and I like reliable.


73,
Grumpy





ken scharf wrote in
:


I remember the Wahl 'iso tip' battery irons. Nice portable tool for
field repairs (but useless for field day PL-259 assembly!). Only
problems were battery and tip replacement. The tips would eventually
fall apart as the ceramic insulation surrounding the heating element
cracked.

As for field day, once I figured out how to quickly assemble PL259's
onto RG8U, I got drafted by the radio club to handle this duty at
field day. (Strip back about 4" of outer insulation, tin the braid
with a HOT soldering gun (I used the BIG Weller gun), file down the
excess solder, cut down the braid with a tubing cuter or a razer saw,
remove the center insulation, cut the center conductor to size and tin
it, then slip the coupling ring over the coax and screw on the
connector, then solder it home (with the BIG Weller gun again!). Took
about 4 minutes per connector.