[Boatanchors] Those Harbor 'Fright' Soldering guns

[Drew P. via Boatanchors]

Tom Chesek wrote:

"My dad gave me a new Weller soldering gun when I was 14. ?I still use it frequently and it works well. ?I am now 64 so that is 50 years of excellent service. ?It is usually best to buy a good quality tool right from the start rather than fiddle-fart with issues. ?You get what you pay for."

I've had a Weller for a bit over 30 years, and it for a while gave me much trouble - would not heat.  I would have to loosen and retighten the nuts which held the tip ends in the holes, every time I pulled the trigger. Pull trigger, loosen nut #1, retighten, loosen nut #2, retighten, make solder joint, release trigger. Repeat for the next solder joint.  Repeat for every solder joint. This was highly annoying and time-consuming. Replacement tips would not fix the problem.  No amount of cleaning would fix the problem.  I finally "fixed" it by pulling trigger, loosening 1 nut, tightening, loosening it again until the tip to barrel connection got hot, flowing in a bit of solder.  I then repeated for the other tip-to-barrel connection. No more problem, but it now takes a torch to change tips because they are soldered in.

Drew