Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

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binarynomad
 
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Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by binarynomad »

Hi,

I'm very new to hardware hacking and I just got my starter kit for my Arduino. I also got a helping hands (with magnifier) but I noticed something about the cage:

I wanted to find out if having the tip of the soldering iron touching the protective cage was damaging while the iron was on. (see picture)

http://imgur.com/uGV6o

--B

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zener
 
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Re: Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by zener »

That looks fine to me. That is not the tip anyway, that is the side of the tip!! No problem.

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binarynomad
 
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Re: Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by binarynomad »

Zener,

Thanks for letting me know. I just wanted to be safe about it (especially with my first iron :-) ).

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by Franklin97355 »

The only problem I see is the fact that you are pulling the heat out of the tip when it touches. If you wait a few seconds before soldering your iron should rebound but it might not take much to move the touch point further up the iron.

Batou
 
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Re: Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by Batou »

Yeah, the protective cage is a big heat sink for the tip of your iron.

Is the cage get hot enough to burn somebody if they touch it?

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binarynomad
 
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Re: Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by binarynomad »

Yeah, the cage does get quite hot (not as bad as the iron), but enough for me to be wary of it. I'm wondering if I need to jerry-rig something.

Batou
 
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Re: Newbie question: Damaging the soldering tip?

Post by Batou »

I would fix it if I were you.

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