DIY Repairs and Maintenance

Using the Pro50 Torch to Bend Acrylic

For another project we are working on we have some 1/8″ clear acrylic we are looking at.  As long as it was on the desk I thought I’d try forming it with the Pro50 and the torch head.  Sure enough, after a pretty short time – 15 seconds? I was able to [...]

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DIY Repairs and Maintenance, Tools Worth Discovering

Solder Paste on Zinc Die Casting

So, the question of the day was will the solder paste solder zinc alloy.  Zinc alloy is pretty broad range of materials and so the first answer was – I don’t know.  That’s pretty weak so we found a zinc die cast part we use and tested it.  This was a Zinc AG40A die cast, [...]

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DIY Repairs and Maintenance

Solder Paste on Stainless Steel

We had a question from a customer the other day about using the silver bearing solder paste with stainless steel.  Having never tried that yet we figured the best approach would be to test it and see.  We got some 302 stainless brackets we use and drilled a bit of a hole in it.  Then [...]

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DIY Repairs and Maintenance

Reader Ingenuity: Clean Contacts to Improve Connection

After Robert came to us with some great improvement ideas for our rechargeable soldering irons, we just had to share. We’re especially thrilled with his maintainance of the contact points, and you can bet we are looking into his other ideas as well. Here’s his letter:
I have used Wahl (Editor’s note: Wahl = Iso-Tip) Cordless [...]

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DIY Repairs and Maintenance, Reader Ingenuity

Reader Ingenuity: Battery Repair for Obsolete Irons

Good news! (Especially for those of you with older Iso-Tip soldering irons.) We’ve learned that Batteries Plus can rebuild old Iso-Tip batteries. So, if you happen to own a model we no longer manufacture, Batteries Plus may be able to help extend the tool’s life by rebuilding the battery. One of our fellow Wisconsinites passed [...]

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Customer Service, DIY Repairs and Maintenance, Obsolete Products, Reader Ingenuity