Tooluxe 40420L Cordless Soldering Iron, Battery-Powered Solder Iron and Wireless Welding Pen with Built-In LED Spotlight, Heats up to 1050°F

I originally bought my iron from RadioShack when they had a deal where these were $5 a pop. I bought about 5 or six of them at the time. Without a doubt, this is the *best* soldering iron I have ever owned. Use batteries and you will hate it because the batteries die very quickly, but if you mod it with a 1.5amp 5v power supply, you will never be happier until they make batteries that run forever. I bought my power supplies from Goodwill although you could buy new if you wanted. Make sure you get 1.5amp because 2amp will get RED hot at the tip. 1.5amp is just perfect, I tested it with a benchtop power supply. Make sure you get 5v too, if you go any higher you will blow out the little LED at the front of the iron, and that little LED comes in really handy. Also, I like to get a switching power supply so that lugging it around is really lightweight. If you get a power supply that has a transformer, it will work just as well but it can be heavy. All you have to do is cut off the plug at the end of the power supply, strip the ends and attach one side to positive and one to negative with another soldering iron. You might need to sand down the battery connectors and use some flux to get it to stick but be persistent, it's worth it. Use your multimeter to determine which wire is positive and which is negative, and then hook it up according to how the batteries are put in the unit. Feed the wire through the back of the unit, and melt or cut out a small hole for the wire to feed out the top just above the battery cover. Then slide the battery cover back on the unit and you're good to go!Once they're modded, they are the best. They heat up in about 8 seconds and get very hot, and when you let go of the button they cool down in about the same time, and have a nifty little cover that you can slide over the tip to keep it from melting anything as it cools down.Of course, if you need a regulated temperature, this isn't the iron for you, but if you are soldering just about any hobby items, metal projects, kids toys, basic electronic repair etc, this is a great unit. I use it almost exclusively for repairing pinball machines.I made one for a friend of mine who also repairs pinball machines, and two days after I gave it to him I got a call from him - "This is the best soldering iron I have ever used." And that is coming from an electronic engineering major who uses expensive soldering irons at work (ie ultrasonic heating elements, wireless $1000 irons etc) all the time!Do not be fooled into buying one of those stupid cold heat soldering irons, they are junk. If you truly need a wireless soldering iron, go with a butane iron, but if you can deal with a wire, get this one and mod it.I am going to set up a website soon that talks about this iron specifically and shows pictures of the mod. When I do, google "Tooluxe Soldering iron" and "pinball" and the website should come up.With all that said, there could be some improvements. Namely, I would love to see a professionally made version of the mod. It would be great if they would just add in a power supply port (which you could do yourself if you wanted), so you could plug it in at will. Secondly, the biggest failure of this iron is the tip element. It screws into the socket like a light bulb. At this point, I have been using this soldering iron excusively for I believe three years, and I have broken two tips. The bottom of the tip gets crammed into the socket now and then and breaks. I have a fix to my last tip but it isn't that fantastic, I hope to come up with a better fix for it soon. The first thing I would do on a new iron is to cut out the little ridges on the black screwpiece at the top of the iron so that it will not snag the iron tip and force it deeper into the socket when you screw it on. It is important that it is there so that the tip is held securely in place, but it does not need to snag on the tip itself. Lastly, for cheapness sake, they made the on/off switch pretty simple, and that could use a new setup as well, but it hasn't been too much of a problem so I haven't modified that. Other than that, nothing else needs to be changed, the iron feels good in your hands and is nice and light weight.I just ordered six more of these irons. I'm going to mod a few of them for xmas presents for my other pinball friends and use the others for spare tips! Hopefully I can figure out the website or phone # of the manufacturer and see if I can just get some spare tips sent out. If I do find them, I will let you know on my website, just search for those keywords above.Enjoy!

First off, let's take care of the "negatives":1) The battery "direction" icons Are Not The Best in terms of "instant legibility"!2) The battery cover IS NOT "easy" to remove, and "less easy" to install with batteries.3) There doesn't appear to be Other Tip Elements available (i.e., "chisel", hot knife). However, I haven't done any Deep Searching yet!4) The clear cover DOES NOT "auto-turn-off" the slide switch. This is a minor nit as the iron is only "active" when you Press The "Little Red Button".Solving the "negatives":1) Use a flashlight to examine the inner contacts: the NEGATIVE battery contact is a LARGE wire spiral, the POSITIVE battery contact is a SMALLER wire spiral. The batteries STACK in the "same direction", depending on the contact.2) The battery cover slides AWAY from the black grip. Once it's partially off, GENTLY pull it towards the BACK of the tool to release it. To INSTALL the cover after inserting batteries, apply pressure to the LOWER battery stack so the ridges on the cover slide into the case grooves. Press upwards then, using a thin "probe" (small screwdriver, paper clip, etc.), press on the TOP STACK of batteries - the cover should then Slide Into Place And Latch.Now for the POSITIVES:1) With a FRESH set of batteries, the iron melts solder within FIVE (5) SECONDS of pressing the Little Red Button (after sliding the switch to the "ON" position).2) Once heated, the tip retains heat for a few seconds, so you can "flow" the solder a little bit.3) The tip gets REALLY HOT, REALLY FAST! while there's no "heat settings", you can "throttle" the tip temperature by "pulsing" the Little Red Button - this will "control" the temperature, especially for Small Solder Areas or Otherwise Delicate Items.Battery Life: this is a "Non Sequitur" as this tool ** IS NOT ** aimed at being a "full use" solder tool. Therefore, It Is No Big Deal to carry a supply of Cheap Alkalines in your "Mobile Tool Bag" and change batteries as required. You can also carry a couple sets of Rechargeable NiMh batteries if you so desire. I personally WOULD NOT RECOMMEND the "Rechargeable Lithium" cells as I'm not sure if they can tolerate the current draw required by the solder element.The tool is best used when held like a pen, using the INDEX FINGER to control The Little Red Button. This also gives you The Best Control in aiming the VERY BRIGHT LED lamp and positioning the iron's tip for solder application.Summary: if you're looking for a "quick-and-dirty" solder tool, and don't want to $pend a lot of $$$, get this tool! as long as you TAKE THE TIME TO ** LEARN ** THE TOOL, you should get lots of use from it.I DO RECOMMEND this tool!

Bought as gift but recipient very happy with it and said works very well

I was looking forward this soldering iron to use it to create perforated papers for my artwork. The device is very light as it's made of toy-like plastic. The nib seems to be good quality and was perfect for my purpose. I bought it because it works with batteries and I thought that it would make portable.However, the battery barrel cover is badly designed and a total pain to be lifted and replaced. I had difficulty lifting it out. Then, when I did, I placed the batteries in, but the cover would not close properly. As the plastic is really weak, I didn't want to push it stronger for fear of breaking it. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on how the device solders. due to this issue and I've returned itNeedless to say, batteries aren't included.

Picked this up as I was sick of always having to refill the butane soldering iron in my occasionally used portable kit, I was surprised at how well it worked, and it's far easier getting 4 batteries past a security checkpoint than a butane refill. The LED light on it is quite pointless, maybe it's just mine, but the focus of the LED is about a cm away from the tip, and the tip itself is shaded from the led by the shape of the mount, to be useful the LED needs to be either a bit higher or further out.So far I've needed to replace the batteries once, and actually got a fair bit of use from it to that point including de-soldering a 16 pin chip something I'd normally use my wired iron for, and re-soldering a socket in it's place.

Honestly it is what to be expected for a cheap portable soldering iron. I like the fact that it heats up very quickly. However, as soon as you start soldering wires together it doesn’t produce enough heat to melt the solder wire onto the copper wires.

Pro... does heat up quick not 7 seconds to operating temp but def under 30 which is still fast.Pro... ergonomic hand position is goodCon... does not hold any heat reserve - great for quick electronic work but not so good for light wire joints or soldering end connectionsCon... protective cap broken while still in package.