Readly RF Feb 20

LASER 12-WATT RECHARGEABLE
SOLDERING IRON
PART NUMBER: 7336 PRICE: £61.42-£91.42 FROM: LASER TOOLS WWW.LASERTOOLS.CO.UK
MAINTAINING YOUR OLD FORD
SOLDERING IRONS
Dl BATTERY-POWERE
Whilst many rechargeable, battery-operated tools
are the most versatile, such as inspection lights,
drills and impact drivers, the same cannot be said of
soldering tools, for now.
This rechargeable soldering iron is powered by an
inbuilt lithium-ion battery, which is recharged via a
USB lead and takes up to 3.5 hours to fully charge,
after which it can be used for around 90 minutes.
There’s a removable tip, which is secured to the
body of the soldering iron with a bayonet-style fixing.
Dl BATTERY-POWERE
SOLDERING IRONS
There’s a safety switch on the body, which needs
to be switched to the on position, then an adjacent
smaller button has to be pressed down to generate
heat from the tip. A small LED light at the front helps
with visibility and also lets you know the soldering iron
is warming up.
After 30 seconds from switching on, the tip of the
soldering iron was sufficiently warm to be able to melt
the solder. The LED light helps to illuminate the area
you are soldering and the lightness of the iron means
it’s easy to manoeuvre, but the pointed tip is possibly
suited to fine soldering on circuit boards.
Although the heat generated by this soldering iron
was capable of melting fresh solder and manipulating
it, the solder soon solidified and was difficult to melt
again. On some occasions, small balls of solidified
solder fell away. We were really interested in testing
this rechargeable soldering iron and the one from
Sealey, but feel they’re not yet a match for the mainspowered
and butane-filled soldering tools.
SEALEY 12-VOLT 40-WATT SOLDERING IRON
PART NUMBER: SD1240 PRICE: £11.72 SEALEY WWW.SEALEY.CO.UK 01284 757500
Powered by a 12-volt vehicle battery, this is a
compact and portable soldering iron. It’s supplied with
a 1.5-metre-long lead and a couple of small crocodile
clips to connect to a battery, so the lead is quite short
for jobs that are not close enough to the battery,
unless the battery can be moved. The crocodile clips
are very small and we found their jaws couldn’t open
beyond 10mm, so they may be difficult to attach to the
terminals of a vehicle battery.
There’s a small metal stand to support the soldering
iron and protect the tip from damaging work surfaces.
Three soldering tips are included, which are all 70mm
in length and 4mm in diameter, so a range of universal
tips can also be fitted.
After connecting it to a 12-volt battery, which had
been fully charged and measured 13.65 volts across
the terminals, this soldering iron took less than a
couple of minutes to warm up and melt the solder.
And its temperature remained warm enough to melt
more solder and manipulate it. After 15 minutes of
use, we disconnected it and checked the battery’s
voltage, which had dropped to 12.83 volts.
As a cheap and portable soldering iron, its power
lead and small crocodile clips may let it down in some
situations, but otherwise, it’s a versatile tool.
LASER 12-VOLT 40-WATT SOLDERING IRON
PART NUMBER: 1316 PRICE: £12.88-£18.29 LASER TOOLS WWW.LASERTOOLS.CO.UK
Powered by a 12-volt vehicle battery, Laser’s
electric soldering iron includes a cigarette lighter
plug and has a two-metre-long lead, which
suggests it’s a little more versatile than the same
type of soldering iron from Sealey. However, if
you’re soldering wires inside or around a vehicle,
then surely the battery should be disconnected?
In which case, there would be no power to the
cigarette lighter. And what if your Ford doesn’t have
a cigarette lighter? Luckily, there is a solution in
the form of an adapter socket with crocodile clips
to connect directly to the vehicle’s battery, but this
can add an another £10 on to the cost.
With a 40-watt rating, this 12-volt-powered
soldering iron has a greater output than the mainspowered
soldering iron we’re testing from Laser.
From cold, it took three minutes to warm up and
melt fresh solder, but once warm, it could melt
fresh solder, manipulate it and melt existing solder.
Despite a generous two-metre-long power lead, it’s
not enough to stretch from the interior of a car to
the rear lights, for example.
Dl BATTERY-POWERE
SOLDERING IRONS
See our behind the scenes footage on Instagram: @retrofordmagazine
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