Broke the soldering iron heating element

[MikeLand]

Well I started in on my second controller the other night. Got up to the fuse holders and had to stop for the night.

Last night I went to change the tip and it was stuck. I pulled harder and the tip came off with part of the heating element broken off stuck inside the tip. :X I guess that tip is no good? Anyone know how to get that piece of heating element out?

I am new to this whole soldering thing and want to know if this is something to be expected. Maybe I had the temp to high for the tip or something? It was the standard tip that came with the station but I had the temp up as high as 800F.

Anyone else with the same station have this problem? Have you replaced the heating element? There are 2 red wires on the element that have to be soldered to wires in the cord. One wire is red and the other is blue. Does it matter which element red wire connects to the blue in the cord? I am ready to solder the extra heating element onto the cord but want to make sure I do it right.

[Denny]

I have the same soldering station, but on initial inspection, do not see any wires leading to the heating element. Did you loosen only the metal knurled ring or the black "rubber" ring when you went to change the tip?

[MikeLand]

Denny wrote:

I have the same soldering station, but on initial inspection, do not see any wires leading to the heating element. Did you loosen only the metal knurled ring or the black "rubber" ring when you went to change the tip?

I only removed the metal ring to change the tip but to change the heating element you have to remove the rubber ring and pull it out of the handle to see the wires I'm talking about.


Attached files

[Denny]

I cannot figure out how to post more than one picture, so....

This picture shows the two red wires going through the circuit board.




Attached files

[MikeLand]

George from Circuit Specialist Incorporated replied to my question and said that orientation of the red wire doesn't matter. So I'm good to go. Solder all the connections trim the leads and put it back together.

[Denny]

This picture shows the other side of the circuit board. The red wires are attached to the red (orange?) and yellow wires.




Attached files

[MikeLand]

Mine has a blue wire in place of your yellow wire and a green wire in place of your blue. What's up with that?

Thanks for posting your pics Denny.