[Phil G4SPZ]

Hello Robert,

"Young Phil" eh? It's been several decades since I could qualify for the term "young", but you cheered me up no end!

Thank you very much for all the useful information. I didn't know how to remove the bit until you mentioned it unscrews. I tried it earlier this evening and was pleasantly surprised to find that it came undone relatively easily using a pair of pliers. The back of the bit is in excellent shape, so I simply wire brushed it, applied a trace of contact cleaner to the threads, and refitted it. All perfect, and the bit now reaches soldering temperature in 3 seconds. I've attached a couple of pictures of the unscrewed bit. The tip certainly appears to have had relatively little use; it's probably a replacement.

I will take great care of the ceramic insulator, as I can see it would be virtually impossible to replace.

From what you say, I am almost 100% certain my iron has been rewired at some point in its life. When I dismantled it, there was a very dodgy soldered joint near where the cable is soldered into the brass disc at the base of the barrel. I had to unsolder and remove the stub of original wire from the hole in the brass disc, and found that the 'new' wire is too thick to fit into the hole, so I had to carefully trim back about half the strands to enable it to go in. You'll see from the photo that there are two separate black wires, rather than an insulated and sheathed cable.

At some stage I would like to restore the iron to its original state by fitting a better quality cable, something like a 2-core 1.5 sq mm silicone rubber insulated flex, as the present one is rather too stiff for comfortable use, so if you could please post a picture of your iron and its cable, that would be very helpful.

With so many glowing testimonials about these Scope irons, and my own very positive experience of using one, I do wonder why they didn't become popular in the UK. I know they were imported here, but perhaps the price was prohibitive. They would also be less appealing to the mobile service engineer, with the separate (and heavy) transformer.

Thanks once again for all the interest in this unusual iron.

Phil