[Elecraft] Weller soldering iron station and auto-transformer

[Mike S]

At 05:46 PM 10/11/2004, Peppino Berria wrote...
>I've a WESD51 soldering
>station that I bought during my journey in Texas: 120
>V. 60 Hz, different than voltage we have here in
>Italy, 220 V. 50 Hz. I'm thinking to use an
>auto-trasformer that I've in the shack for reduceing
>voltage: in-220 V, out-110 V. Anybody could tell me if
>it may be any problem? What about the "earth" on the
>line that's relationed to the potential 220 Volt? Is
>110 V. too low for powering my WESD51?

A 220-110 transformer will work fine. Be sure to ground the third (round) contact on the AC power cord plug(NEMA 5-15P, shown here: http://www.stayonline.com/reference/nema_straight_blade.asp ) to maintain safety and the anti-static property of the station.