NSD

[mjg]

It's New, but really old, Soldering iron Day.

I was visiting my grandmother on the weekend - she's 86.  At the moment she is trying to clean up her garage, as she "doesn't want to be a burden when she's not around any more".  Her words. (For reference, she gave up chopping her own wood with an ax last year).

She ended up giving me a soldering iron that belonged to my granddad.  He died about 25 years back, so the iron is at least that old. Also a tin of flux, which had the price in shillings and pence, which would be pre Australia going to metric.  Probably purchased in the 1960s? Earlier?

Anyway, this iron is a monster. 100 watts. The tip is about the size of my finger. Not sure what I'll be able to use it for, for fear of setting things on fire!  The solder was a bar of metal the thickness of my finger.  Enough to drown ICs in a single pass.

There was also a cupboard full of plans for building your own submarine, so maybe that's what a massive soldering iron is good for. 

I'll post some pics once I get them off the camera.

[somnif]

An iron that chunky is/was probably for plumbing use! I see them occasionally at my local electronics store, with new tips as big around as my thumb. They sometimes see use in woodburning or stained glass work too. Old tools are always cool (assuming you don't plug it in anyway  )

[mjg]

Here are the photos - it's alive! 

The brand is 'Birko' which was started around 1940 in Australia.  They don't make soldering irons any more, but the company is still around making pie warmers, kettles, and hot water urns. 

Agree it was possibly for plumbing - my granddad built their house so he probably did the plumbing and gutters with this?    But he was also into electronics - he worked for Telecom back in the early days. 

[Adam_DIY]

That's awesome

[galaxiex]

Awesome indeed, and if you ever need to solder a ground wire to an amp chassis or the back of a pot, that iron would make short work of it.
Prolly take all of 1/2 a second to do the back of a pot.

I have an 80 watt "modern" iron I use for those tasks.

[Willybomb]

We used to use soldering irons that size for killing the horns in calves before they budded...