UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > Specific Vintage Equipment > Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment

Notices

Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment For discussions about vintage test gear and workshop equipment such as coil winders.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 6th Apr 2019, 10:07 am   #21
The Philpott
Dekatron
 
The Philpott's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Colchester, Essex, UK.
Posts: 4,081
Default Re: How to solder

5/32 Whit. Noted, thanks Chris! Perhaps it's time for a pre-emptive strike with tiny smear of copper grease before it becomes a problem. Dave
The Philpott is offline  
Old 6th Apr 2019, 10:52 am   #22
Herald1360
Dekatron
 
Herald1360's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,527
Default Re: How to solder

I don't think the grubscrew was 5/32 BSW, the Meccano screw was, ISTR, graunched into the stripped threads of its hole. It was occasionally a nuisance in tight corners of a chassis!

The original thread may have been 6-32 UNC. Maybe the owner of the pristine one could check?

Edit: I see that's you.....

You can make a stand just from bent ally but like a lot of things it's only worth doing for the sake of it with things like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOLDERING...edirect=mobile

available.
__________________
....__________
....|____||__|__\_____
.=.| _---\__|__|_---_|.
.........O..Chris....O

Last edited by Herald1360; 6th Apr 2019 at 10:59 am.
Herald1360 is offline  
Old 6th Apr 2019, 1:55 pm   #23
Guest
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: How to solder

I was taught to solder three times, once by my dad when I was six, second time at the PYE training school and finally by the "ladies on the line" at PYE TVT, they really knew how!
 
Old 7th Apr 2019, 1:56 am   #24
Chris55000
Nonode
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Walsall Wood, Aldridge, Walsall, UK.
Posts: 2,853
Default Re: How to solder

Hi!

I got my soldering tuition from my Dad when I was 12, and yes I've spent the first thirty years fixings using Antex, Remploy and DeeGee irons as well!

Apart from the nuisance of needing a second iron to replace the element in the first one, the biggest bugbear I had with Antex's was the later yellow versions – the black plastic round the heater element assemblies used to crumble away leaving a very hot and dangerously flopping about element and bit end!

I didn't twig about mains leakage from irons in my early days of servicing, but that certainly explained why so few of the radios and amplifiers using germanium transistors didn't oblige me after fault–finding everything else – the mains–leakage had permanently destroyed the characteristics of the transistors!

(I used to get mixer–oscillator stages that refused to oscillate, amplifier stages with hardly any gain and o/p stages that were far too inclined to collector–current runaway!)

Since going into industrials full time twenty years ago with high–quality low–voltage Weller irons with accurate temp. control and proper ESD precautions, my casualty rate with soldering semiconductors has dropped to virtually near zero!

Chris Williams
__________________
It's an enigma, that's what it is! This thing's not fixed because it doesn't want to be fixed!
Chris55000 is offline  
Old 12th Jul 2019, 7:46 am   #25
suebutcher
Heptode
 
suebutcher's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Daylesford, Victoria, Australia
Posts: 674
Default Re: How to solder

Quote:
Originally Posted by barrymagrec View Post

Leevers used to use Adcola irons that suffered from the same problem - the machine shop chaps made a special jig to hold the element so that the bit could be drilled out on a pillar drill.
My Dad always bought Adcola irons, and that was the big problem with them until they changed the barrel to Metric sizes and added a nickel shim sleeve to stop the tip freezing in place. The trouble was, going Metric rendered the old "L" Series and "M" Series instantly obsolete because the new tips wouldn't fit the old irons and they stopped making the Imperial sized tips on the introduction of the new irons. It needn't have happened if they'd just made the shim sleeves a tenth of a millimetre thicker. Of course they sold more irons that way, but I hated them for it!

Did you have the "M" Series irons in Britain?
__________________
The Waves That Rule Britannia
suebutcher is offline  
Old 12th Jul 2019, 10:27 am   #26
BRASSBITS
Hexode
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 364
Default Re: How to solder

Quote:
Originally Posted by thermionic View Post
There was also the S R. Brewster soldering iron which looked very much like the Antex, but usually had a red handle.

Brewsters were also based in Plymouth, so I’m wondering if they were in fact made by Antex?


SimonT .
I still use one dark blue, I have often thought if they were made by antex
BRASSBITS is offline  
Old 16th Jul 2019, 9:47 am   #27
suebutcher
Heptode
 
suebutcher's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Daylesford, Victoria, Australia
Posts: 674
Default Re: How to solder

I case they weren't sold in the UK, here is a 1960s Australian Adcola M Series M64 with a lovely red Bakelite handle, and its 1973 Metric replacement, the S50. M Series irons are now very hard to find in working order despite the large numbers made for Commonwealth Government departments, the post office, and the military.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	AusAdcola.jpg
Views:	77
Size:	39.9 KB
ID:	186782  
__________________
The Waves That Rule Britannia
suebutcher is offline  
Old 16th Jul 2019, 1:07 pm   #28
barrymagrec
Octode
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Morden, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 1,552
Default Re: How to solder

Quote:
Originally Posted by suebutcher View Post
I case they weren't sold in the UK, here is a 1960s Australian Adcola M Series M64 with a lovely red Bakelite handle, and its 1973 Metric replacement, the S50. M Series irons are now very hard to find in working order despite the large numbers made for Commonwealth Government departments, the post office, and the military.
The Adcola irons that Leevers used and that my Dad had from the early fifties had a brown bakelite handle with a Tufnol tube arrangement. I don`t remember a model number, just 25 watt although a very late one in similar but smaller style was 15 watts.

Leevers Rich stopped using them circa 1971,I think my Dad`s just died and he had a Weller by then.
barrymagrec is offline  
Old 18th Jul 2019, 12:03 pm   #29
suebutcher
Heptode
 
suebutcher's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Daylesford, Victoria, Australia
Posts: 674
Default Re: How to solder

That sounds like the L Series, which had a bulbous Bakelite handle with a removable insulating tube covering the wire terminals. They were sold in Australia too. But the closest I've seen to the Australian M Series in British radio magazine ads is the Adcola Invader.
__________________
The Waves That Rule Britannia
suebutcher is offline  
Old 18th Jul 2019, 1:25 pm   #30
mickm3for
Heptode
 
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK.
Posts: 947
Default Re: How to solder

Hii any else got one of the "cold solder "irons was given a compleet kit i now see why. they work by putting a current across the part you are soldering
just the job for static sens devices. Its lost in my workshop somewhare Mick
mickm3for is offline  
Old 18th Jul 2019, 2:55 pm   #31
Trevor
Octode
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 1,082
Default Re: How to solder

Solon was my first purchase in the soldering iron world! I was seven at the time and walked about 5 miles to the hardware store. The store keeper gave me 2 ft of Ersin ready fluxed solder I can still remember the smell of it .Oh happy days
Trev
Trevor is offline  
Old 19th Jul 2019, 5:40 pm   #32
avocollector
Heptode
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Wellington, New Zealand.
Posts: 653
Default Re: How to solder

Not sure if memory is playing tricks on me but I seem to recall my original Antex irons having a sort of plastic hook sleeve on them so you could hang them up between solderings. I have a terry clip on the edge of one shelf nearby over the back of the workbench for shoving the handle of my current iron into and that works well - obviously it has to be well out of body area (head) range.

One of my most memorable soldering irons was a gun, like a shrunk down weller, in red plastic which appeared in NZ about 25 years ago. It was incredibly impressive in heat up time and overall heat once the trigger was pulled despite being very small - then after about 3 months it started to melt? Turned out someone at the factory had put the wrong labels on irons intended for the US market (115v) and of course with NZ's 235v mains they were somewhat overdriven. We were all give the proper 235v model later in a recall and exchange but, although the replacement was pretty good, it was not a patch on the wrong one for heating up times.
avocollector is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:25 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.