I got one of the Cold Heat Soldering Units for Christmas this year and have
been experimenting with it. It works more like a welder than a soldering
iron. It does work, but only well for some specific applications. Soldering
wires to switches and terminals is great. Tinning wires or soldering two
twisted wires together is difficult to do without melting the insulation. It
heats by running current between two electrode points on the tip when you
complete the circuit by touching the wire. You can quickly tin the point it
is touching, but it takes a while to heat the wire around the tip. Because
it is "cold" there is no stored heat to quickly get a point up to temp like
a soldering iron, so as it heats, the heat travels and begins to melt
insulation. Its not that it doesn't work, it just works differently than an
iron. I have found that you can make a fairly good twisted wire joint by
making 3 or 4 "spot welds" rather than trying to heat the wires enough to
flow out a typical solder join. If you stick to small localized joints, it
works great. If there is a lot of mass or area to heat, go get your
soldering iron.
Kirby...
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