I searched the forums here to see if there were any discussions about the "Cold Heat" soldering tool, and found nothing, so here goes...
I'm a complete beginner with electronics, and I got one of these things as a gift. I cut and stripped a few lengths of solid 22ga to solder together for practice, and the results were frustrating to say the least. The solder beads up into little spheres, and almost seems to be repelled from the tool tip, making it impossible to form a joint. It either sticks to the end of the solder spool, or just literally rolls away. During the last attempt, the wire's insulation melted a bit. Making the contact to get the tip to heat up seemed to work about half the time.
As far as I can tell, I'm following the directions properly, but something is clearly wrong here. I've read some mixed reviews about Cold Heat, but given that I'm a beginner, it's hard for me to say if its my fault or the tool's (or a combination of both). I'm wondering if I should just go buy a regular soldering iron. Any advice?
Thanks
I'm a complete beginner with electronics, and I got one of these things as a gift. I cut and stripped a few lengths of solid 22ga to solder together for practice, and the results were frustrating to say the least. The solder beads up into little spheres, and almost seems to be repelled from the tool tip, making it impossible to form a joint. It either sticks to the end of the solder spool, or just literally rolls away. During the last attempt, the wire's insulation melted a bit. Making the contact to get the tip to heat up seemed to work about half the time.
As far as I can tell, I'm following the directions properly, but something is clearly wrong here. I've read some mixed reviews about Cold Heat, but given that I'm a beginner, it's hard for me to say if its my fault or the tool's (or a combination of both). I'm wondering if I should just go buy a regular soldering iron. Any advice?
Thanks