Sir "P" . . . . .(Paul ...? )

You put in soooo many points of interest, that I am just going to have to bisect them apart, covering point by point.

Bought this Weller handle and 33 Watts heating element with tip about a year ago. Very pleased with it.

I thought that I knew ALL of the Weller line but had to think about that wattage rating and the configuration that its
element would be in.

Few days ago the tip broke off flush with top of element. I got it out all right

AAAAHAAA . .now that broke off tip now reminds me of the day one generation of the Ungar family of irons with their screw in cartridges and the acceptance of a 6/32 screw in tip.

One might remember its profile better as its version with the larger screw in
cartridge that had a fixed tip and was used for "wood burning" craft

but looked in Mauser for new tips and saw $4.00-5.00 price tag! Mauser is usually pretty good on price but thought I check here.

Now would that be the "Mauser" rifle family, or the Mouser electronics supplier, or "The Mouse House" as I affectionately
call them, when placing a phone order, as their HQ is less that 30 mi from me. Seems like those manufacturers playing with enhancing the primary tips coating ,seems to zip up the pricing. I initially remember progressive upgrades to:

1. . . a silver coating

2 . . .changing to a gold flash dip

3 . . .then a hard chrome surfacing

4 . . .the current . . iron "coating", wherein they are warning you not to file or damage and thus break thru into the base metal,
and then loose its advantage of retaining a tin.

Also, based on that price, I picked up a "pure" copper 1/8" rod 36" long for $1.50.

Hmmmm, now you have me wondering about that source of purchase, where I initially would thinking of a "Premium Brewed" Full Service hardware store with its metal supply area where they have all families of metal cut up into 2, 3 or 4 feet chunks.

Angle stock , rod stock, channel stock in alum, steel, mostly all in the larger stuff.

Or THENNNNNN . .if you need smaller gauge stuff you shift over to their K & S metals sections where I think that you might have found that smaller category available. Where it is possible to have copper , brass aluminum or steel /iron in those smaller diameters, even as tubing diameters that will progressively telescope into each others sizes.

AND those latter mentioned tubing products are what I am USUALLY buying, so I remain a bit fuzzy on the precise offerings of the
rod stock . However, I do think that I remember 1/8 rod stock in brass, alum-i-ninny-yum and copper,

But in playing around with them, I am sure of it being hard drawn copper, versus soft copper , such as you would find in copper wiring of that equivalent gauge.

Expect to make 30 tips out of that rode. All I have to do is thread rod 6/32 and grind chisel or point tip.

that
Now thats sounding like about an ~ 1 inch tip length, with all of the saw cut kerf losses in multiple segmenting of the rod down into
A l l l l l l l l l l . . .of those tips.

Any comments or suggestions on making the tips that way? If it works, that's thirty tips for $1.50! PL

OK now here is where I came in with the SAME identical situation, but its origin was back in 1968, when I then though that $1.95 was outrageous for a soldering iron tip.

This was in the day before soldering stations and one was likely to see that Ungar iron mentioned , being used by some people,
while others might upgrade to the Princess series of Ungar.

But the Scientific-Military-Industrial complex tended to drift towards a rugged iron to be used on their assembly lines that was
running all day long.

Their product of choice was the Hexacon iron, it having its pale turqoise colored handle, its cork finger grip ring and its silicon rubber three conductor line cord with its grounding plug.

That came in a 30 watt unit and a 60 watt unit of which the 30 watt had an end hole which accepted the insertion of a rod style of tip in wedge, chisel,spade or pointed end treatments. That tip was just a bit larger than an 1/8 inch and the manner of retaining the tip was a side set screw.

The heavier rated iron had a hole in the end for the acceptance of a heavier tip element right in the order of 1/4 inch.

After using both units for time, I zeroed in on the heavier unit and have had two units in use SINCE 1972. One on bench and another for portable use and both resting in holders that will clamshell closed with a cover, when you rest the iron in the unit.

My secret for that longevity is the running the units thru a common SCR lamp controller so that I will be lowering the AC voltage reaching the element down to the 40 watt level. Only upping to full power, when working in a situation where the heat is being sloughed off by the massiveness of the work materiel.

Secret two is the meticulous and frequent cleaning of the outer heating element housing and tip with the brass bristled brush that one uses to clean a grill with .

After turning off the iron, the unit is scrubbed down , up to the point where it has lost all of its heat. The iron actually takes on
a slight brass sheen on the casing that the heating element is inside, Apparently its having a slight stainless content.

On irons that are not pampered in this manner, I see their center heating element areas taking on wide black and dark grey rings where the internal heating
windings are concentrated, Mine looks almost as pristine as on day one.

That preamble above finally ties into the situation of the use of homemade tips with my long time experience in making them.
Now the first thing that I would be against would be the threaded in tip. I have certainly found fault with the older situation of
the like tip used in Ungar units, You certainly have to periodically check the tip to see that it has not siezed up.

For sure, a weekly inspection, if not more frequently, with daily use. Just grip it and confirm that it will unloosen for a full turn
and then re tighten it. Otherwise if neglected, that is when you will find it shearing off when you try to replace it, then you are
right in the middle of trouble city !

Now I am WELL aware of this siezing up, since I even have the SAME problem with my elements that do not thread on, but merely drop down within that cavity and a set screw then retains them.

The difference, however, is that I also have been making my tips, but using a mix of 1/4 in copper tubing and some Home Depot HEAVY copper ground buss copper wire which is right at the gauge that will almost slip within that tubing, the difference being if using tubing from old 40-50-60-70's stock where the gauge was a bit heavier,

The newer vintage copper tubing internal gauging just lets that wire slide inside,

On the older tubing, I am cutting the tubing into 1 1/4 in inch lengths, the wire is 1/2 in lomger, and chamfering one end of the wire and placing a light a film of silicone grease on the wire.

The aligned up pair are then placed in the jaws of a vise and compression will then telecope the two together.

A prepared tiplet is then chucked into a drill motor, rested across the lap, to then be used "rotating lathe style" and a Dremel Tool
with a cut-off wheel is brought up to the side of the end to make a sloping chamfer at the tip end, for the forming of my usual ~1/8 inch end (or 3/16 in for a heavy duty tip).

After stopping the drills rotation, a 45 degree sloped end treatment is placed on that , other wise, round tip end.

The internal diameter of the hole in the Hexacon heating element was enlarged a bit from the initial 1/4 inch by the use
of two progressively numbered drill bits step ups , in order to ream up the internal sizing that much.

The reason, . .the copper tip elements would oxidixze into black copper oxide and sieze up within the heating elements cavity.

I have soooo many tips built up now, that I just slip in a new one and later I brush down all of the oxidized ones and re tip and retin them again and recycle them yet again. ( Usually 5 times before they have worn /eroded down too far)

About an hour of fabricating up a supply horde. . .while watching a TV program simultaneously . . ., will build up a years supply.



My tip elements have a loose sliding fit into the elements heating cavity, I KNOWS that you will potentially have problems with a threaded element , without frequent confirmaton / examination that the siezing conditon has not onset, that being particularly
true if soft copper, rather than hard drawn copper is used for tiplet construction.

There are some anti-sieze agents offerd by some soldering supplies manufacturer, but even those are limited in their effectivity
with time of use,

Procedure for Fabricating a Slide in Type of Tiplet :

. . . . . . 73's de Edd