Help me fix my soldering iron!

July 14, 2008 3:04 PM

I broke my soldering iron. How can I fix it?

Being the soldering rookie that I am, I seem to have broken my iron while trying to replace the tip. Instead of just unscrewing the tip, I took out the screw that held in the heat sink and pulled that out. After I realized my mistake, I pushed the sink back into position and replaced the tip the correct way.

The problem? Now when I turn it on, the middle of the iron gets very, very hot but none of the heat seems to make it to the tip. If I put it on the 40 W setting instead of the plain 20 W, the visible part of the heating coil gets red hot (which it definitely did not before) and starts to smoke a little (maybe because I haven't used it for a while?).

Is this a common problem? Is there any way I can fix this and restore heat transfer to the tip? Or do I just need to suck it up and fork over the cash for a new iron? Thanks in advance for your tips!

Explanatory photo here.

posted by sah to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

You know, it really would be helpful if you provided the manufacturer and model number of your soldering iron.
posted by exphysicist345 at 5:15 PM on July 14, 2008

Completely disassemble, reassemble. or take out that screw again tap the end to move the heater back to the proper position,fit the tip careful not to push the heater backwards,use a toothpick inserted in the vents to maintain the heater position while reassembling.
posted by hortense at 6:05 PM on July 14, 2008

To elaborate a little on hortense's reply: the problem is probably just that the tip isn't physically in contact with the heater element any more, so the heater is just sitting all by its lonesome in the barrel of the iron with nowhere to deliver its heat.
posted by hattifattener at 7:56 PM on July 14, 2008

Sorry for the lack of details there. This is the soldering iron in question.

The last thing that I tried before giving up was to take out the heat sink and cram it back in while using a screwdriver in the vent to hold the heating coil in place. Maybe I just didn't push hard enough?
posted by sah at 10:13 PM on July 14, 2008