Readly RF Feb 20

l MAINS-POWERED SOLDERING IRONS
TRIED & TESTED
SEALEY PROFESSIONAL SOLDERING KIT
PART NUMBER: SD250K PRICE: £24.35 SEALEY WWW.SEALEY.CO.UK 01284 757500
Pistol grip soldering guns provide more
control over traditional soldering irons, but are
generally more bulky. However, this mainsoperated
230-volt soldering gun is not as bulky
as it may seem, because it’s easier to handle
and control than a soldering iron and has less
interference from the power lead. The power
lead is only 1.5 metres long, so an extension
will probably be needed, but it’s not too much
to prevent it being ravelled up and squeezed
into the compact carry case. Supplied with
a short coil of solder wire, a small stand for
holding wires or objects, a smaller stand
for keeping the hot end of the soldering iron
away from work surfaces and a useful solder
sucker, which removes excess solder. There’s
one 75mm-long, 4mm-diameter soldering tip
included, but any tips that are 4mm in diameter
can be fitted. It all just fits inside the carry case
and is a lot easier to store if the thin plastic
lining inside is removed.
When plugged in and switched on, the
soldering iron automatically operates at 30 watts
and the solder tip should warm up to 120°C.
Pressing the boost trigger means the gun will
consume 100 watts to raise the temperature to
250°C, but this should only be operated for a
maximum of 12 seconds per minute.
From cold and without using the boost
trigger, the soldering gun took 3.5 minutes to
warm up and melt fresh solder. Once warm, the
boost trigger certainly helped to quickly melt
fresh or existing solder and manipulate it.
l MAINS-POWERED SOLDERING IRONS
SEALEY 40/80-WATT PROFESSIONAL SOLDERING IRON
PART NUMBER: SD4080 PRICE: £22.95 SEALEY WWW.SEALEY.CO.UK 01284 757500
This mains-operated 230-volt soldering iron
has two settings for differing levels of heat (40
and 80 watts), and apart from Draper’s soldering
station, it is the only mains-powered soldering
iron with a means of switching off the power, but
leaving the soldering iron plugged in. There’s a
switch on the body to switch between the various
settings (off, 40 and 80 watts) and an LED light to
show when it’s switched on.
Supplied with a small stand to help keep
the end of the soldering iron’s tip away from
work surfaces, there’s only one 90mm-long,
7mm-diameter tip, but replacement tips can be
purchased. The power lead is a mere 1.3m long,
so an extension lead may be required in some
cases.
The 40-watt setting was adequate when we
tried to solder two wires together, but it took over
three minutes on this setting for the soldering iron
to warm up from cold and melt the solder. During
this time, the blue paint that was on the end of
the tip, which is for anti-oxidisation purposes to
prevent discolouration of the tip and to help with
tinning on first use, burnt off.
Once warm, it was sufficiently hot to not only
melt and manipulate fresh solder, but reheat and
melt solder that had already been applied. And the
pointed tip was very easy to use, despite being
one of the largest on test.
This is one of the few soldering irons we tested
that’s supplied with instructions to initially ‘tin’ the
tip by melting a thin layer of solder.
The variable heat settings are a popular feature,
and most soldering jobs of 5-17-amp wires on a
vehicle require the lower 40-watt setting. The 80-
watt setting is suited to bigger jobs.
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