I was going to ask you if you had a wallwart around the iron?

I had a gun style weller do the same thing as I was holding it. The bang was fairly loud and I can sympathize with the lack of soldering equipment. That is a bummer.

This is a perfect opportunity to pay some attention to your girlfriend.

Take care,
-Peter

Yup. Gonna grab that opportunity, and she certainly is Alas she is very busy with school

Quotetheoretically, you could put a single 500 volt 1N-type rectifier in series with one side of the 240 VAC supply to halve the voltage for a cheapie 120 VAC iron.

Actually, no, you can't.

The RMS/heating value of a half wave rectified signal is about 70% of the full wave value. The original signal RMS (for a sine, which the AC line is, almost) is Ipk/SQRT(2). The RMS for a half wave rectified sine is Ipk/2. They differ by 1/SQRT(2), or 0.7071.

You *can* cut the current down to 70% of original this way, and that's what the "light bulb saver" wafers are - a rectifier pellet set up to be in series with the AC line.  But I suspect that a 120Vac soldering iron run on 240VAC half wave rectified would have a short life.

Thanks for that RG! I love those "counterintuitive" things! Thinking about it, I changed my mind at least three times

Hmmm. Not that it matters, as I said I have an adaptor somewhere. Now to find it.

Right, time to go pay attention to my girlfriend

Smoguzbenjamin,
    I think I have a weller Soldering Station unit that you can have.   I will see if I can find it and put some new parts on it for you.  Of course again you would have to use your adapter.  It has a 3 prong plug on the end.  

go here:  http://www.allspec.com/start/weller.html?s=o

It looks like this one:    WESD51 Soldering Station

Peace!
Arn C.

ps.  Until I get it ready and sent to you, I suggest you take ansil up on his offer, it may take me a little bit to get it ready, and first to find it!

Thanks Arn! :mrgreen: Wow, this community has proven itself again. I was just wondering why it blew up in the first place and now people are helping me out with replacements :mrgreen: Mundo cool!

3 prong would be grounded (right?), which in Europe has no use because the only grounded plugs are in the kitchen and laundry room. So that's not an issue. I don't know what it's like in the States though, do all sockets have a ground connection? :? Oh hang on, I might have to check the adapter (gotta find the bugger first ) if it's got a ground socket thingy. Probably is though. And even if it isn't what does an adapter cost nowadays? If I'm lucky I can get one for 5 euros or so