@#$%&! Soldering Guns
I leave a pencil type soldering gun sit for a minute and the tip turns black the barrel turns blue, the tip screw chars black and the pencil solderer chars. I bought a solder station and turned the...
Forum Discussion
Have you ever used a Metcal Smartheat system? I had the chance to use one a little some years ago, and it was by far the nicest hand soldering equipment I've ever used.
The technology is pretty clever. The heater is a little block of metal energized inductively via a coil, like an inductive cooktop, with an alloy chosen such that the Curie point is the desired temperature. When it reaches that temperature, it is no longer magnetically active, and so the heating cuts out. It all makes for very quick heat up, and very tight temperature control, and calibration that physically can't get out of whack. Unfortunately, that does come at a (not insignificant) price.
(Because of this design, they can keep the handpiece fairly cool as well.)
The technology is pretty clever. The heater is a little block of metal energized inductively via a coil, like an inductive cooktop, with an alloy chosen such that the Curie point is the desired temperature. When it reaches that temperature, it is no longer magnetically active, and so the heating cuts out. It all makes for very quick heat up, and very tight temperature control, and calibration that physically can't get out of whack. Unfortunately, that does come at a (not insignificant) price.
(Because of this design, they can keep the handpiece fairly cool as well.)
