Soldering

[MarkDonMel]

Has anyone used a heat induction iron?  I was talking to a customer about guitars, and one topic lead to another and he was telling me about an induction soldering iron... works using magnetism or something, gets hot when it comes in contact with metal I think.  I don't see how you can control the heat, doesn't sound effective, who knows, but it made me curious.

Thanks.

[petemoore]

I saw these on TV for 20$.
 I read a review, said something like maybe good in a pinch...don't remember much.
 Until I read a rave review of this product, I'll stick with my standard iron type for soldering.

[sir_modulus]

It's one of those things on TV. Called cold heat
http://www.coldheat.com/

I think it's quite useless for Diy as 800 degrees on any semiconductor means death.

Nish

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

The 'cold heat' has been discussed here, consensus is that it is crap.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=24480&highlight=cold+heat

[The Tone God]

I thought Paul got a kick of that.

The "Coldheat" I think produces it's heat from a controlled short circuit. There is a slot in the tip that you slide the part into to make a short.

Thats is different from inductive heating which uses magnetism. I've seen stoves in high end kichens that uses this type of heating. The CN tower was one of the first places to have them.

I think the problem with this is getting a VERY focused magnetic field to heat only the area around the tip. Otherwise anything metal near the tip will heat up (i.e. part leads, traces, sockets, transistors, IC's internals, etc.) You would also need a fair amount of power which means a big supply with a big cord. Overall I don't see working very well.

Just my thoughts.

Andrew