Auto feed soldering iron

[EL34]

Anyone try one of these?


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Auto+feed+soldering+iron&crid=VMUYUSXZBQ6M&sprefix=auto+feed+soldering+iron%2Caps%2C176&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

[acheld]

No, but it reminds me of when I was a college kid doing a summer job at a rail car factory in Detroit.  The foreman asked if any of us knew how to weld -- I did know how to stick weld pretty well -- so he said great, one our welders is hung over, out in the back shed, and we need to finish up this transporter car.  So come over here he says, and handed me a MIG welder and walked away.

Needless to say, when you pulled the trigger, the wire came out of that MIG welder so fast it made my head spin, and after I burned a couple of holes in the plate steel deck, the foreman came back and chewed my butt for half an hour.  Did nothing more than tack weld the rest of the summer . . .

So, whenever I see a spool like that, I shake my head and just say no.     

[PRR]

> the wire came out of that MIG welder so fast

This thing, you press the orange 'trigger' to advance the solder. Much like the usual glue gun, or a calking gun. So unless you have an itchy trigger finger, it should not get away from you.

With a pound of solder hanging off the back it will be heavy. And I paid more than $26 for just a good iron back in the 1980s.

And I don't think you should put the solder to the iron, once it is wet. Solder goes on the joint. But watch the video for this one. It dribs and dabs without wetting the board; wets the wire only cuz it is pre-tinned.
https://www.amazon.com/vdp/c693585689b84674bd371631d3c9b545?product=B07HQHXB8M&ref=cm_sw_em_r_ib_dt_7MF8ke3UvmdeF

[shooter]

a pound of solder hanging off the back it will be heavy

unless you have an itchy trigger finger,

I can see one leading to the other 

[sluckey]

All that for $26. Must be some real hi-Q stuff!   

[EL34]

As PRR noted

I also noticed the solder hits the iron tip
I feed the solder into the hot joint, not down the tip somewhere.


It may be possible to bend the solder delivery tube so it hits the right spot


It looks like more of a tool you would use for bigger joints than tiny turret lugs and eyelets.
 

[acheld]

There are some inventions that seem so logical and useful, but are really off the mark.   So near, and yet so far.  This is one of those.

[PRR]

The idea goes back at least to the 1950s (I've been reading the archives). Possibly the 1930s.

Another great idea which did not thrive: Ungar offered a little clip which went on the iron's heater and had a tab with a V-cut. You set your insulated wire in the V, twirl, pull, and wire is stripped. I have the same thing in a stand-alone PATCO stripper, which is awkward for cut-strip-solder-cut-strip-solder process, but killer for stripping a hundred ends quickly.

(And note cork handle. I have one from that era. By 1971 they were ribbed plastic and not so nice, though much more sanitary.)