Neiko 40420L Tooluxe Cordless Soldering Iron
by Neiko
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Our Price: $7.80
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Category: Tools
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Product Details
Manufacturer: NeikoProduct features:
- Reaches 365 Fahrenheit or 185 Celcius immediately, also cools down instantly
- Maximum temperature is 1050 Fahrenheit or 565 Celcius
- Features with a white LED light at the tip, light up the spot
- Equivalent to a 15W soldering iron
- Uses 4xAA batteries (not included)
Description of Neiko 40420L Tooluxe Cordless Soldering Iron
This cordless soldering iron provides you with the soldering ability of a 15W soldering iron without the restrictions of having to be tied down by the cords. Instantle reaching 365 Fahrenheit and with a maximum temperature of 1050Fahrenheit, this soldering iron only uses 4 AA batteries so it produces a lot of heat with little power.Tools and Hardware Reviews of Neiko 40420L Tooluxe Cordless Soldering Iron
Customer Review: The Best Hobby Soldering Iron - When Modified
Summary: 5 Stars
I originally bought my iron from RadioShack when they had a deal where these were $5 a pop. I bought about 5 or six of them at the time. Without a doubt, this is the *best* soldering iron I have ever owned. Use batteries and you will hate it because the batteries die very quickly, but if you mod it with a 1.5amp 5v power supply, you will never be happier until they make batteries that run forever. I bought my power supplies from Goodwill although you could buy new if you wanted. Make sure you get 1.5amp because 2amp will get RED hot at the tip. 1.5amp is just perfect, I tested it with a benchtop power supply. Make sure you get 5v too, if you go any higher you will blow out the little LED at the front of the iron, and that little LED comes in really handy. Also, I like to get a switching power supply so that lugging it around is really lightweight. If you get a power supply that has a transformer, it will work just as well but it can be heavy. All you have to do is cut off the plug at the end of the power supply, strip the ends and attach one side to positive and one to negative with another soldering iron. You might need to sand down the battery connectors and use some flux to get it to stick but be persistent, it's worth it. Use your multimeter to determine which wire is positive and which is negative, and then hook it up according to how the batteries are put in the unit. Feed the wire through the back of the unit, and melt or cut out a small hole for the wire to feed out the top just above the battery cover. Then slide the battery cover back on the unit and you're good to go!
Once they're modded, they are the best. They heat up in about 8 seconds and get very hot, and when you let go of the button they cool down in about the same time, and have a nifty little cover that you can slide over the tip to keep it from melting anything as it cools down.
Of course, if you need a regulated temperature, this isn't the iron for you, but if you are soldering just about any hobby items, metal projects, kids toys, basic electronic repair etc, this is a great unit. I use it almost exclusively for repairing pinball machines.
I made one for a friend of mine who also repairs pinball machines, and two days after I gave it to him I got a call from him - "This is the best soldering iron I have ever used." And that is coming from an electronic engineering major who uses expensive soldering irons at work (ie ultrasonic heating elements, wireless $1000 irons etc) all the time!
Do not be fooled into buying one of those stupid cold heat soldering irons, they are junk. If you truly need a wireless soldering iron, go with a butane iron, but if you can deal with a wire, get this one and mod it.
I am going to set up a website soon that talks about this iron specifically and shows pictures of the mod. When I do, google "Tooluxe Soldering iron" and "pinball" and the website should come up.
With all that said, there could be some improvements. Namely, I would love to see a professionally made version of the mod. It would be great if they would just add in a power supply port (which you could do yourself if you wanted), so you could plug it in at will. Secondly, the biggest failure of this iron is the tip element. It screws into the socket like a light bulb. At this point, I have been using this soldering iron excusively for I believe three years, and I have broken two tips. The bottom of the tip gets crammed into the socket now and then and breaks. I have a fix to my last tip but it isn't that fantastic, I hope to come up with a better fix for it soon. The first thing I would do on a new iron is to cut out the little ridges on the black screwpiece at the top of the iron so that it will not snag the iron tip and force it deeper into the socket when you screw it on. It is important that it is there so that the tip is held securely in place, but it does not need to snag on the tip itself. Lastly, for cheapness sake, they made the on/off switch pretty simple, and that could use a new setup as well, but it hasn't been too much of a problem so I haven't modified that. Other than that, nothing else needs to be changed, the iron feels good in your hands and is nice and light weight.
I just ordered six more of these irons. I'm going to mod a few of them for xmas presents for my other pinball friends and use the others for spare tips! Hopefully I can figure out the website or phone # of the manufacturer and see if I can just get some spare tips sent out. If I do find them, I will let you know on my website, just search for those keywords above.
Enjoy!
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