Quick Fix for OLDER Weller Guns

I've always found that when the fasteners are tight on the gun, one can feel a 60 Hz vibration in the gun when turned on that gets weaker as the fasteners loosen.

I'll have to take back what I said in the first paragraph of my previous posting. Regarding the status of my old Weller 8200 gun: I didn't have all my "facts" right at the time of writing. Sorry about that. This afternoon I found that one of the nuts was loose after all and after a bit of tightening, the tip is now heating up well. If you need a bulb for your gun I found that number 222 bulbs work pretty well. I got a pair of them recently from the hardware store.
73, Rod  WB6FBF

Cliff, the material for dissimilar metals is called "No-Ox". Trade name I think.

 I used it when I had my electricians "wire man card" from the state.
We used it on copper to aluminum connections and on the main feed wires from the pole to the breaker box, meter, and main breaker.

19&41
Yup metallic anti seize does work. Tried it on one gun I had.
Ungar made a special anti-seize paste, & that is what I used.

For a relatively high temp purpose like this, I wonder how the metallic infused anti seize compounds for spark plugs would work in this application?  It could reduce the amount of torque placed on the secondary loop when tightening the nuts or screws.  I have seen it made with both copper and aluminum powder.

I think the major problem with slow heating comes down to:
Copper Tips,
Chrome nuts,
steel or copper set screws.
Dissimilar metals-
different heat expansion rates of connections.
I think the solder tip holders are chrome plated brass and copper tips and the nuts are also chrome plated brass.

There is a paste that was supplied by Pace and it was conductive and very high heat. I used this for metal screws on Pace solder extractors that held hollow metal tubes to the heating element. This would keep the screws from seizing.

Also I think that electricians used a similar product for aluminum to brass or copper connections.
Maybe using this may keep the metals in none oxidized condition.

Any thought on this

Keep checking Ebay, there are still some good deals on older Weller 8200s.  If you are patient, a good deal will come along. There are seller who think they are rare and try to get a fortune for them.

Examples;

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have one of the older Weller 100/140 Watt guns that has not been heating up properly for some time now. Not sure why. It is slow to heat up and just barely adequate for light duty soldering. I have loosened and retightened the nuts over the years as needed but that doesn't help much anymore. I put a new cord on it recently and found at the time what looked like a broken primary winding at one of the speed nuts but redoing the connection didn't make any lasting difference.

I did buy one of the newer Weller 9400 guns to replace it a while back. It was the model with the LED lights on it and rather ugly looking. The switch went bad on it after 4 months (too late to return it to the hardware store for a refund) so I ended up mailing it back to Apex, NC for repairs. The postage was about $20 for that. They sent me a whole new kit back after about a week with no explanation or comments. I ended up donating it to the local ham club for one of our raffle ticket fund raisers. 

Weller did offer the older looking 8200 for sale with the small round light bulb. I was thinking of trying to get one of those. A check of the Weller website shows it is not listed for sale anymore. In the 4 months I had the other one the tip screws tended to loosen after a while. Also, the newer tin plated tips appear thinner than the older ones and don't last as long either. The name of the company in NC is now Apex Tools. 

73, Rod  WB6FBF

I completely agree about the new guns with set screws.....JUNK!

I have at least 6 of the Weller 8200 model and 2 of the Weller D550.   All of the 8200's I own are the original style with nuts. All are in excellent shape with one being an up-opened kit with the cellophane still on the case.  I did find a few tips with nuts ready to go.  The only reason I purchased them was to have extra nuts on hand.  The real old units have Easton Pennsylvania on the red tag, new units (but still with nut) have Apex N. Carolina on the tag.  A few years back I picked up 6 of the "new" guns for next to nothing because they would not heat.  I cleaned and re tightened everyone of them. I sold all of them with instructions on how to maintain them. I never received a complaint.  There was also a new style gun which was smaller than the 8200 and it would have to be cleaned almost every time it was used.

If you have a OLDER Weller soldering gun, and it doesn't seem to want to heat, or heats slowly, try this:

Just loosen the tip nuts and re-tighten.
Simple as that. I carry a wrench of the correct size in my tool box. Pliers can round off the flats on the nut, and the nuts are hard to find now.

(The NEW Weller guns are, IMHO, so much junk. The set screw they use to hold in the tip can easily fall out or strip out.  I have re-drilled and re-tapped the hole for a bigger set screw, but it will likely fail again in the future. Poorly re-designed cheaper construction. Much lower quality than the old guns).