Don't understand why there's no strain relief on the handpiece by default, seems a really odd omission. I can't stand irons that get your fingers hot - even the JBC irons get toasty after a while. One thing the Metcal does well is isolate the heat - the handpiece doesn't get warm even after hours of use. If you take the soldering tip out, you can hold it half way down with bare fingers straight out the iron.
Happy to be able to say that the new handpiece doesn't have a problem. In fact its great. The Metcal tips sounds like the Pace ones Steve... You can hold them almost halfway down straight out of the handpiece too. Gotta be careful not to grab'em too low though 🔥 .. 🙂
Silicon "Fusion" tape, one of the greatest things since sliced bread...use it all the time to seal coax cables on ham radio coax cables out in the weather but it's handy for all sorts of other applications as well. Thanks John for sharing!
I am using T12 Hakko clones and I've noticed that with a fancier aluminium handle I get higher temperatures on the handle than with a plastic one, because aluminium is a better heat conductor than plastic so i don't get it, how did they get the temperature lower with an aluminium handle? Maybe the secret is in the holder for the tip? they isolated the tip from the handle better?
Yes probably all to do with better design. I would say with the new Pace handle the inner design of the aluminuim tube helps disperse heat along the whole handles length, once inserted the tips only contact the alloy at certain points, I guess spreading the heat to specific areas to aid heat dispersion. With the old plastic/resin type handle all the heat was right were your thumb and fingers go 😯. Cheers 👍 John
If it still gets too hot, maybe put the rubber boot on and slide 6 wooden cocktail sticks under the boot to keep it off the metal. Or a wooden tube cut down the end into two halves to fit around the aluminium would slow the heat down a fair bit, maybe split bambo. Just my silly thoughts :-D
Hello John, another interesting video my friend. That 10 degrees makes quite a difference on the hand-piece comfort level. Back when I was a mechanic my hands got used to higher temperatures (probably callused) but now, not so much. I think an over 40c hand piece would be really uncomfortable after a short time. Regards, Dave (PS if I can get him to hold still long enough, I will send you and your mother a photo of Bear - you won't believe the size of him)
Hiya Dave, thanks for the comments my friend. So you were a mechanic too aye. Yes your hands certainly toughen up after years on the spanners don't they. Like you though mine have softened up now.. In fact they're like ladies hands now LOL. Looking forward to seeing Bear if you can get a picture of him. STAY Bear.. Stay 🙂 Regards John
@@irishguy200007 There are only two main contacts on each iron tip. The third contact in the handpiece just makes contact with the silver body of the tip.
@@OrbiterElectronics Ok Thank you for that, that's what I wanted to know. So now I'm wondering why there are 4 wires in the handpiece with only 3 connections. I know Pace were basically copied by the TS100 which has the heater and thermocouple in the head but the TS100 has three contacts and resuses the same two for sensing and heating purposes. I would have expected three wires in the Pace if there are only three contacts but there are four. Hmmm
For general SMD stuff I used a 0.8mm chisel (Pace part Number 1124-0012-P1) For very small SMD stuff I use many tips, but here are a few I use most... 1124-0041-P1 1124-0042-P1 1126-0630-P1
@@irishguy200007 Yes it's a good size for larger components as it is a 1.6mm tip, so has a bit of thermal capacity. It's not really suitable for the smaller SMD components but it can be used for almost anything else as a general purpose tip.
@@irishguy200007 You won't get away with using just one tip.. You need a good few like the ones I listed. And only via trying them will you know which ones feel correct for the type of work your doing.
I don't have a specific answer for you but I took a couple of measurements from the outputs on my ST100 which uses the TD-100A, and was getting voltages of 22.5v and 23.2v.
@@irishguy200007 Sorry.. yes that was DC.. I wrongly assumed there would just be DC.. However I took a couple more measurements just now to check and I see not only those DC voltages, but also another pin reading 100v AC. I wouldn't mind a schematic for either the Pace ST50 or ST100 controller boards just to see how they function a little better :)
