ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Soldering Iron Tips

I've got a stone-aged one, probably from the 1930ies. Wooden handle, black rubber cord, really heavy, 85W. I bought it for 70 cents!
It works great for soldering all kinds of wires, mostly patching phone cords. Phone wire is helluva expensive here, so I use lots of long scraps, and for occasional runs between floors I have to solder 2 of them together. When they renovated our school they threw away several pieces of brand new phone wire, up to 18m in length! Well, our government obviously can afford it. Back then they had the entire building wired twice because nothing worked the first time, and even then the bell system didn't work. The first weeks in the new building all teachers took their own alarm clocks.

Paul,

I went out and dug mine up and see that I have 2 Model 8200 Weller Guns. They're labeled 100/140 watts. Good for soldering wires I guess, but that's about it.

Bill

Ragnar,

I know I've done it also in emergencies, but isn't just running a continous pair of telephone wire better than to solder old scraps together?

It's more reliable and there's less chance of that splice eventually breaking or generating noises on (at least your part) of the line.

Also, I never trust old station wire. The conductors are so fragile that you never know if there's an internal break until you have the whole system stapled to the wall and ready to test.

Also isn't there a problem when you use computer modems on such a line (slowing down connections)?

How much is single-pair bell wire in Austria per meter? What about quad station wire and also Category-5?

It can't be that expensive can it?

There's one place where I got a nice big hank of brand new quad (about 100 feet) for $4. That stuff all comes from China now...so it should be cheap!!

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 04-16-2003).]

I have not exact idea how much that stuff is, but my rough guess would be something like 50 cents or more per meter. The scraps I was talking of were excess wire they just cut off and dumped. The line in question was just a plain phone extension, no modem or such (you wouldn't want that in your living room, would you?. I did a short conrinuity test on all 4 wires and they were ok. And even if they weren't I only needed 1 pair, so I had 2 spare wires.
I don't know about CAT5 bulk, a 20 m patch cable was around $15 IIRC, maybe 18.

What I do most is to patch cables of historic phones. I often get them with cut cords, so I take 2 cut pieces and solder them together.

The Solon iron I mentioned isn't quite as old as yours Ranger, but it dates from the 1950s.

Bill,
The 100/140W Weller guns have, I believe, a two-position trigger switch. If you squeeze it part way in you get 100W; squeeze it further and you'll hear a second click as it notches up to 140W.

My Weller gun must have come from a government surplus batch of some kind, as the lid of the box has "U.S. Government Property" stamped on it. (At least I hope it was govt. surplus -- Don't want the Feds after me! )

OK, I think I can say we threadjacked this one... .

Ragnar, I don't know if you might prefer this:

Go to a local variety-discount store (do they have Euro-stores in Austria? ) and get a hank of that $1 (E1) 25-foot flexible telephone extension cords? They have a modular plug at each end, but you can cut these off since you don't need them.

Then get a telephone line cord stripper and a couple of crimping tools - one for crimping telephone wire spade lugs (I assume the cord gets connected to a terminal strip?) and the other one for crimping replacement RJ-11 modular plugs at the opposite end of the cord.

A more sturdier solution for these old phones could be to use black (I assume the monster in question is black?) .75mm lamp flex....and attach a surface-mount telephone terminal block or junction box like this one at the other end with a 10cm piece of modern telephone cord for wall-mount phones(mod. RJ11 plug at each end) to plug into the wall box.




I know it's not the most original idea...but the whole point is to get the relic working again...

On the telephone cable costs, my usual supplier currently carries 100m quad reels for £6.30 plus 17.5% VAT. In U.S. currency, that's less than 11 cents per yard including tax. 3-pair works out less than 16 cents/yd.

They're trade prices, so expect anything up to double in the "Big Orange" type stores.

Tell me,
How many of you guys own a cordless soldering iron?
I've got 2 of them, one an Scope C60 10 Watt solder gun and a Portasol P-1K butane iron.
Really handy for places where there's no power supply or where I can't be bothered running a flex!

I did have one once, a good few years ago, but it was seldom used. I think I got rid of it during my grand clear-out to go to the States.

I'm not a great fan of cordless power tools of any sort. I know they're handy for awkward spaces where it's a hassle to run an extension cord, but compared to AC-operated tools they're still quite expensive and lower powered. You're also reliant upon keeping a spare battery pack fully charged all the time, which adds even more expense.

How about those little torches that supposedly work using ordinary cigarette lighters? Are they any good?

There's one in this surplus merchandise catalogue that uses "Scripto-type" lighters ("Bic won't fit"). Whatever that means....

I was thinking of getting it....but what good would it be if I can't find the stupid lighter...maybe I'll wait and spring for a real butane torch that fills from a gas canister.