RadioShack® Conical Tip for Cold-Heat Cat. #6402102

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

I first used the cold heat iron on a silver charm bracelet. I attach the charms with 7 mm sterling rings using silver bearing solder. I've made over 500 connections with it (replacing the tip along the way). I could not have done this work with a conventional soldering iron.

I also use it to attach small motor wires to switches in small projects.

It's not the best for printed circuit boards. Not good for large wires or connectors. Great for small wires and connectors.

Like any soldering iron, you do NOT try to heat the solder. You heat the object and apply the solder.

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

I've used this iron to repair many small electronics and it works but it's just not the same as a real iron. It works by splitting the tip into two halves and leaving a gap at the front and when you tap it to metal it completes the circuit from one side of the tip to the other sending a high voltage (very low current) through wherever it contacts the two sides. This causes the tip material to heat up quickly but solder will behave erratically if you're trying to heat up the solder directly. Trying to heat the solder directly with the iron is a big no-no. Since most hobby solder is rosin core you will end up gumming up the tip and reduce the efficiency until it is so gummed up it will no longer conduct. You also cannot clean these tips with flux because of the way it works and pretty much any kind of abrasive material you may use to scrap off the rosin will slowly grind away the tip material. Proper soldering techniques work fine. Do not heat the solder, heat up what you want to join and once hot (10 to 20 seconds on a fresh set of batteries) put the solder on that joint not on the iron and it will work just fine. If you want to solder in a component just heat up the contact on the board and then melt some solder on it (the contact not the iron) covering the hole. Then get your component and reheat contact and once it melts stick the wire/component lead in and you're done. It works fine for small (but not tiny due to the gap in the tip you must bridge to turn it on) jobs and medium jobs but useless for large areas since it sucks up too much juice and takes too long so if you're more interested in soldering for mechanical purposes this won't do well for you. The tip is brittle and only requires a light touch, anything rough and it will crumble up little by little into powder. A light touch is all you should need, if it doesn't turn on you just need to clean any residue off the tip as best you can without using anything rough. It's great for quick fixes, not so much for assembling a whole project.

In the end you will love or hate this iron depending on if you're used to soldering by heating the joint or by heating and dripping the solder.

Some of my favorite uses:
Tinning speaker wires, keeps the tips nice and neat.
Salvaging components from something before I toss it out.
Mating wires to connectors, because just crimping it isn't always enough such as in car stereo applications where vibration and exposure are a problem.
Quick reflow on a cold solder joint, fixed my component inputs in no time on an older TV.

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

I never had a problem with cold heat and its just how you handle it right

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

The "Cold-Heat" soldering iron (sic) is absolute junk. You are not realy soldering but rather arching a current across the width of the solder causing it to melt in an unpredictable fashion. Wasting more money on a conical tip for a soldering (sic) iron that does not work well is not a good investment. Save your money and get one of RadioShack's other soldering irons that use real heat instead of "Cold-Heat".

P.S. For you academics out there, "Cold-Heat" is an oxymoron.

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

tips break easy with not a lot of force

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

i regret buying this product.

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

This is a really handy tool for making small circuits its just alittle too powerful for some of the solder i normally use

Comments about RadioShack Conical Tip for Cordless Soldering Tool Powered By Cold Heat:

its great for soldering electronics like microchips for cars and planes . RC of course.