Bending Iron Fix

I got a surprise this morning..a suspicious package arrived by Royal Mail :uhoh:..and after first checking that it wasn't an explosive device I carfully opened it up, to find it was a "Digital bending Iron" sent to me from Pete H ..a note inside told me that there was something wrong with it and it didn't work..It was brand new, and on careful inspection I could see that it appeared to have some internal damage...I unfastened a few screws and removed the electronic part from the unit...as I could see that it's innerds would have to be inspected I took a photo of the wiring so I could see how to re-wire again on reassembly.

Next I opened it up and met a sorry sight..It had suffered damage from transport in the mail...Some plastic lugs had broken off and the circuit boards screws had broken away causing the board holding a small transformer to hammer into some components and tear away a white wire from the mains connector lug...and one of the red wires on the ransformer had overheated and melted the insulation...(as you can see in the pic it's well cooked)

At first I thought "This can't be fixed" But! I decided to reconnect the broken wire and give it a try..I connected it to the mains supply and switched it on...And surprise surprisethe digital screen lit up..and the iron started to warm up.

So i decided it could be fixed after all..and with the aid of some acetone plastic
cement and CA glue and some Epoxy putty..I got it all back together pretty sturdy.

Then I got it back into the plastic housing box looking OK.

Then with the first pic as guide I rewired it back into the main unit.

then a quick test with my digital thermometre.

the job was done.

I took it up to 200 degrees F with no problems apart from the bottom of the Iron was much hotter than the top//but I imagine that if left on for a longer period the temprature would even out.

You are, as always, my saviour when it comes to stuff like this Ken. Email me so I can PayPal you the return shipping costs.

I fixed this as well while I was at it Pete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXkAMdW2_hg

See. This electronic stuff ain't that hard.

Sent you some mullah for shipping iron back Ken. Please keep Snowdon Solitaire...

Always nice to see tools able to be rescued. I have a similar iron to this on on order, so hopefully it doesn't suffer the same fate in transport. On another note, I have heard some say that those non-contact infrared thermometers can have trouble giving accurate readings on the metallic surface of bending irons. Have you had any issues with that, Ken?

dasuol said:

Always nice to see tools able to be rescued. I have a similar iron to this on on order, so hopefully it doesn't suffer the same fate in transport. On another note, I have heard some say that those non-contact infrared thermometers can have trouble giving accurate readings on the metallic surface of bending irons. Have you had any issues with that, Ken?

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Not heard of that before ...but this is the first time I've used it on a bending iron..I mainly use it to check the temperature of titebond and parts that I'm glueing on chilly days.

Timbuck said:

Not heard of that before ...but this is the first time I've used it on a bending iron..I mainly use it to check the temperature of titebond and parts that I'm glueing on chilly days.

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I seem to remember Susan Gardner discussing this and so she painted the top of the iron black to combat the reflection which caused the problem( or something like that). The black top can be seen in this video, but I can't find her original one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgaqhZnvIyw&t=293s