Weller Soldering Iron

[Drew Stephenson]

Thought you'd managed to find a video of some making their own Weller power supply there Mike.

[ef37a]

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/chassis- ... rs/0504672*

With a suitable enclosure, 30-35 quid all up? You have the pencil which are about £100 and so even if that proves no good you could get a new one which I assure you will work on that transformer thus saving you another £100 or so.

"One has to speculate..."

*N.B. I am assuming you have the necessary knowledge to work on and make safe 'mains side' equipment? If not your transformer options are much more limited.

Dave.

[Mike Stranks]

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/chassis- ... rs/0504672

I am assuming you have the necessary knowledge to work on and make safe 'mains side' equipment? If not your transformer options are much more limited.

Dave.

Not so sure on that Dave... Ohm's Law had to be explained earlier in the thread...

[GRAHAM99]

Thanks for all the input on this!!
I have never put anything together involving mains voltage so perhaps it is best left alone.
I will have a think about what to do.

[MarkOne]

I hadn't ever thought about this until a few days ago, I'm looking at building a bench PSU for lab projects and looking through a few YouTubes (Yes, not the best source of advice when it comes to legal/regulatory matters) I noted a couple of comments about making mains powered kit and where you might stand in the event it blew up/burned your house down/killed someone

So I'm thinking, in this world of regulation, health and safety, etc, where does that leave the ardent DIY-er?

If you make something with a donor supply like an ATX supply or a laptop brick and you don't modify that in any way, it comes complete with a CE mark (or a UL mark if you are Leftpondian) and has been certified as fit for purpose. Conversely if you cobble something together with a Toroidal, a rectifier, and a regulator from RS and some strip board, even if you know what you are doing, and sometime later it er... burned down your house, would an insurance company see that as a big get out for not cutting you a cheque for a new one (house that is)

Over the years I've designed and built supplies for all kinds of things, both as a DIY-er and in a professional capacity for my job on everything from HiFi kit to bits for fighter jets. But I'm not sure I'd do that any more without using a certified module to convert the killer-watts to the benign ones that run my logic board

[GRAHAM99]

I don’t give up easily!

[GRAHAM99]

There are laptop adaptors on Amazon for about £17 stating 25v and 2a.
I think this would work and be a safer than cobbling something together?
Does the output voltage have to be ac or dc?

[Hugh Robjohns]

...even if you know what you are doing, and sometime later it er... burned down your house, would an insurance company see that as a big get out for not cutting you a cheque for a new one (house that is)

Insurance companies will try all sorts of crap to avoid doing what they charge you lots of money to do!

But legally I think it comes down to 'competence'. You need to show that you have sufficient competence to do what you did. Obviously an appropriate qualification or professional experience would demonstrate competence. Without a qualification, you'd have to indicate that you are knowledgable in the subject, aware of the dangers, and took appropriate and adequate precautions to mitigate those risks.

So demonstrating that you selected an appropriate size of mains cables, calculated the correct fuse ratings, used appropriate insulation around live connections, mounted components in a safe way, etc etc....

[ef37a]

I agree with Hugh, depends on the person and the experience they can prove.

In my case I think 45 years or so fixing TVs, radios, audio and microwaves should prove ability. Then I was working on live chassis for a guitar amp company past my retirement age. I hope they would give me a glowing reccy!

I would not however be 'qualified' to do certain works to my house wiring*, the regulations are very stringent. I HAVE of course! Fitted the odd extra 13A outlet. Some years ago I had to replace a switch unit in the meter cupboard so I was working with one live wire straight out of the company fuse. Nitrile gloves, insulated pliers and ensured that nothing 'earthed' was anywhere near me. Very stressful but in practice just getting one thick wire in a terminal block and screwing it tight. Some people do that every day!

The 'kids' will get the bungalow (or the local council? ) so they can sort out the rewire and the accumulation of 53 years of electronic junk.

*Who here has all the wiring qualifications?

Dave.

[Folderol]

There is this:
https://cpc.farnell.com/ideal-power/59r ... 20supplies

Depends on whether your iron can work on DC. That's down to how the thermal control is managed. If so, all you meed to do is arrange a suitably plug/socket combination. It's possible there are also slightly more beefy PSUs which would give you a bit of extra margin.

[Wonks]

There is this:
https://cpc.farnell.com/ideal-power/59r ... 20supplies

Depends on whether your iron can work on DC. That's down to how the thermal control is managed. If so, all you meed to do is arrange a suitably plug/socket combination. It's possible there are also slightly more beefy PSUs which would give you a bit of extra margin.

As the iron wants to draw 1.9A at 24v, that 1A supply will be overloaded! You'd need 24v with a 2A supply as a minimum.

And from the experiment with a 19v supply (giving 27W), a 24W power supply won't provide enough energy for the iron to stay hot in use.

This would be a better choice https://cpc.farnell.com/tiger-power-sup ... dp/PW04924

But by the time you add on shipping, you are au at £35 or so, and for £40 delivered, you can get a basic 60W temperature controlled soldering station from Amazon.

[GRAHAM99]

There are 24v 2 amp adapters on eBay for about £7.
I can’t work out how to copy the links though.
I will try one of these out!

[Folderol]

Ah! I thought it was a 24W iron

[DGL.]

I agree with Hugh, depends on the person and the experience they can prove.

In my case I think 45 years or so fixing TVs, radios, audio and microwaves should prove ability. Then I was working on live chassis for a guitar amp company past my retirement age. I hope they would give me a glowing reccy!

I would not however be 'qualified' to do certain works to my house wiring*, the regulations are very stringent. I HAVE of course! Fitted the odd extra 13A outlet. Some years ago I had to replace a switch unit in the meter cupboard so I was working with one live wire straight out of the company fuse. Nitrile gloves, insulated pliers and ensured that nothing 'earthed' was anywhere near me. Very stressful but in practice just getting one thick wire in a terminal block and screwing it tight. Some people do that every day!

The 'kids' will get the bungalow (or the local council? ) so they can sort out the rewire and the accumulation of 53 years of electronic junk.

*Who here has all the wiring qualifications?

Dave.

If I can see and correct faults that on paid work then I think I'm OK to do some work myself, Sparkies on YT like to complain about DIYers but some trained individuals are just as bad as a bad DIYer so going with a professional means nothing.

For example we are getting my Grans old house ready to sell and as a good few of the switches/sockets are probably original (1960's) I thought it would be a good idea to replace everything so it's modern and it matches, that's light switches, sockets, the cooker switch and the various fused outlets, all using the cheap but acceptable Crabtree Capitol range.
It also showed up the long defunct way the sockets were wired in which the downstairs sockets (excluding the kitchen which was rewired in the 80's) are spurs from sockets upstairs, now originally there would have been probably only 3 sockets in the living and dining rooms so it saved some effort.

Unfortunatly people who have added sockets have not realised this and have put extra sockets in where the regulations prohibit it (only one double or one single socket is allowed on a spur) and so as I have been replacing sockets I've been bypassing and blanking off sockets as necessary.

The new owner will probably get it rewired anyway as most of the wiring is probably original (though all PVC and I've seen no degraded cables behind and acessory) and it's all wire fuses with no RCD plus the wiring to the garage also really needs to go on it's own breaker, but rewiring was not something I fancied!

[GRAHAM99]

I have acquired a bag full of dimmable lighting transformers from our local recycling group.
They all say output 11.7vac 20-60w.
I have ordered a “proper” one off eBay now but I wonder if two of these could be ganged together to generate almost 24v??

[Folderol]

I have acquired a bag full of dimmable lighting transformers from our local recycling group.
They all say output 11.7vac 20-60w.
I have ordered a “proper” one off eBay now but I wonder if two of these could be ganged together to generate almost 24v??

Probably not. The dimmable bit suggests they are electronic thingies. These would not be happy wired together.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'm all for a bit of DIY, but this really is in danger of becoming a bodge on top of a bodge on top of a bodge... all to save a few pennies.

It really would be so much more practical -- and safer -- to buy a half decent modern temperature controlled soldering iron as suggested earlier in the thread.

[DGL.]

I'm all for a bit of DIY, but this really is in danger of becoming a bodge on top of a bodge on top of a bodge... all to save a few pennies.

It really would be so much more practical -- and safer -- to buy a half decent modern temperature controlled soldering iron as suggested earlier in the thread.

Or if you really want to get it working try bidding on this, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324997637603 ... SwIMth4rlm
You'd need the correct bulgin plug to connect to it though.

Personally I would get one of the cheapo Chinese stations that includes a hot air gun, great for heatshrink.

[GRAHAM99]

I have ordered an adaptor off eBay!!

[DGL.]

It's a bit battered but I have just found a Weller PS-2D if you want it for the price of postage.
The case has been cable tied together, part of the output socket has broken off (though the socket is still perfectly usable) and it currently has no plug, but it was working when last used.