Tony,? I have to ask where you are getting/got these cheap soldering irons.? I bought one from an ebay seller (Chinese) and one from a supplier here in the USA that said it had a USA power plug on it (120v ac) which they did have but the iron itself was for 220v ac so it does not get warm.? Make sure the iron(s) you buy are actually designed for 120v ac and not 220vac even if they have the right cord on them.
Good luck.
Jim Pruitt
WA7DUY
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On 7/16/2021 1:46 AM, Tony Parks wrote:
Good Morning Group,
Here is a related question concerning building Softrock circuit boards using inexpensive soldering irons. I have been doing such building for lots of years, with hundreds of the RX II receiver boards and RXTX transceiver boards built and shipped. I still do it at 80 years old with shaky hands, or at least would like to do it, but the inexpensive soldering irons I have used successfully for years, no longer get hot enough to cause the solder to melt and flow. My rural REMC power, actually energy, company still provides 240/120 VAC to my workshop, as in second floor bedroom, where I do the kit builds.
Thinking that maybe slightly higher voltage would result in a hotter soldering iron temperature I have connected the secondary of a 120 volts in, 8 volts out transformer secondary in series with the 120 VAC power. My inexpensive DVM now indicates 130 VAC to my soldering iron but still no proper melting of solder. I have tried three different irons with the same failure to properly melt solder.
Is there something obvious that my "Parkinson" refined head is missing???
