Cold Heat Soldering Iron Tips

A cold heat soldering iron melts solder--a metal used to hold connections on a circuit board. But instead of plugging into a wall like traditional soldering irons, it uses batteries, and unlike traditional soldering irons that stay hot, the cold heat soldering iron cools almost immediately. Soldering with the cold heat iron is nearly the same as with the old soldering irons, but a few things have changed for the better.

Athalite Tip

The cold heat soldering iron uses a the Athalite soldering tip. This tip is made of two electrodes that are covered by a plastic shell. Contacts inside the cold heat gun handle supply an electric charge to the tip, generating the heat your cold heat gun uses to solder with. Do not press the tip hard into the surface that you are trying to solder. On the cold heat gun, a red light will turn on when heat is being transferred to the material you are working with. Press lightly with the tip. Pressing too hard may damage the unit. When the red light does not come on, take out the tip and reconnect it, ensuring the contact points are aligned between the tip and the handle of the unit.

Using the Iron

Using the cold heat soldering iron requires a slightly different technique than a regular heat gun. The cold heat gun uses electricity to melt the solder. If you are not able to get an electrical contact between the electrodes of the tip and the piece you are working on, tilt it at an angle until the red connection light comes on. If you have used traditional soldering irons, you will be used to tinning the tips of your soldering iron: that is, melting a bit of solder onto the tip to aid in connection. You do not need to tin a cold heat soldering iron. If solder gets stuck between the two electrodes of the tip, it should melt away after some further use. If it does not, turn off the unit and remove the batteries. Use a nonconductive material to gently pry out the solder.

Damage

Use the cold heat soldering iron on diodes, transistors or integrated circuits with caution. The cold heat soldering tip sends out an electrical current to melt soldering iron, and this electrical current can damage these sensitive components. The electrical current from the cold heat gun tip can power up the circuit it is working near, overloading it and damaging the component. The cold heat soldering gun also creates sparks on the rare occasion when it is lifted from a circuit while turned on. Prevent this from happening by turning off the soldering iron before lifting it quickly from the circuit you are working on.

References

• Cold Soldering Iron
• Cold Heat Manual