Cordless quick cool soldering irons....

[DavidE]

Anyone try one of those battery operated soldering irons that heats up almost instantly then cools down in a couple of seconds? They're $20 at Radio Shack and I'm wondering if they' be good for installing pickups, fixing pedals etc....

[kurtsstuff]

I look at them everytime I go to costco but...i don't know...I kinda like breathing in those deadly fumes that emanate from my trusty soldering iron....lol!

[DaveH]

I really don't see how any serious work could be done with these....there's no power (watts) behind them. Anything with mass, potentiometer lugs or eyelets for example, will require some wattage to make a good solder joint. These 'cold' irons *might* work ok on small, low-mass joints....possibly the pcb traces inside a pedal, or splicing very fine wires. Even then, I'd consider it a temporary fix to get by with until I could get to my real soldering iron.

[Jason01]

From what I've heard they're basically spark plugs. You can see them sparking if you pay close attention on the commercials. I haven't personally tried one so I can't really comment but it seems pretty fishy to me.

[sirDaniel]

Geez David, you'll chase any kornball topic to get that post count up there.

[Guest teefus2]

some people on the gear page tried out the one advertised on tv. they said it made "cold" joints that were pretty poor. i think they mentioned the idea behind them was kimd of like a quick arc welder. they didn't heat up the joint enough to really get a solid connection and last. i think you can search the topic of the brand name of the iron on the gear page to find more.

[Guerrilla]

i think they got blasted somewhere on HC too.

[alpep]

they don't make sense. you need to heat the part and have the solder flow not heat and melt the solder. it is opposite of how I was taught to solder. I would guess it would make cold solder joints.