A Cool Find – '50s/'60s Weller Soldering Gun

I couldn't pass a vintage Weller 8250A solder gun for sale at the local tool library. I had watched it for a few weeks, looking sadder and more abuses every time I looked, so finally I couldn't resist and my offer of 10 bucks was accepted with laugh and "It's not worth that much. Thanks!"

I think an old guy (old = older than me ) got it way back in the '50s and it was ignored for years for years in his shop until his kids were cleaning out house.

I didn't get a good "before" picture, but here's a picture of the filth on the metal box – quite a few layers had to be cleaned off to reach patina!






Eventually, the box was looking fairly decent. We can call this patina now.



After getting the cleanup complete, I testing the soldering gun. You'd think I might have done this before buying it, or at least before cleaning it up, but (vintage) Weller solder guns are almost indestructible, so I wasn't too worried.



The ancient penlight bulbs light up, and the managed tip heated up!

Not looking too shabby for something about as old as I am! New tips are on the way from Amazon.... which should be a Weller 7250W, which did take some research to find.

They were commonly used by TV service engineers out in the vans, in the workshop you used proper soldering irons.

The reason was simply the fast warm up and cool down times, and the fact that you didn't need a decent soldering iron in someone's house, as any soldering jobs were relatively simple. If it was anything that required any 'better' soldering, the set would be brought back to the workshop.

With the demise of CRT sets their use has probably mostly disappeared, and I suspect most are in landfill

Partly nostalgia but sometimes you just more power, like soldering a heavy wire to a large ground plane.

I had a newer model growing up, in a plastic case with a Styrofoam insert, but I gave it away long ago.

I was given one as a gift about 50 years ago. It was used by some high school students about 15-20 years ago to melt a small hole in hollow plastic balls so they could add sand for a physics demonstration. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure it was ever returned. Pretty useless tools.

ZipZapOuch said:

I was given one as a gift about 50 years ago. It was used by some high school students about 15-20 years ago to melt a small hole in hollow plastic balls so they could add sand for a physics demonstration. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure it was ever returned. Pretty useless tools.

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Like I said, they were great for outside service in the CRT days - not much use in a workshop environment though.

I have one I bought in the late 1970's. I used it for automotive electrical repairs.

Terry_g said:

I have one I bought in the late 1970's. I used it for automotive electrical repairs.

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Crimped connectors have since proven to be much more reliable, faster and easier to assemble in an automotive assembly, repair or modification environment - but they were not as widely available or affordable as they are today.

Didn't realize they are passé now !!
I use mine regularly!
Many do not know, or forget, that the first 'pull' on the trigger is the higher heat!

This model seems to only have one setting.... but it has two light bulbs

It also came with tips for cutting and smoothing plastic, which I had never seen before.

I don't know why they should be deemed 'Useless'?
They are still being sold in one form or another. !!
I made up various custom copper de-soldering tips that free all pins on DIP IC's etc.
I have been tempted to try them for small spot welding jobs with the right dia tips.

MaxHeadRoom78 said:

I don't know why they should be deemed 'Useless'?
They are still being sold in one form or another. !!
I made up various custom copper de-soldering tips that free all pins on DIP IC's etc.
I have been tempted to try them for small spot welding jobs with the right dia tips.

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Sorry for the overly broad claim - let me change, "a useless tool" to, "I never found a use for it".

I wonder if a Weller soldering gun could be used for plastic "welding" with staples? It might be too powerful to use without a careful touch.

Wouldn't take much to try!

For The Popcorn said:

I wonder if a Weller soldering gun could be used for plastic "welding" with staples?

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I have a plastic stapler, similar to that - the first thing I though when I opened the box was that it's a variation on the design of the old Weller soldering gun I had as a teenager!

MaxHeadRoom78 said:

Wouldn't take much to try!

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I'm not sure I want to nearly dead short a power-tool battery across a paper clip without some testing. Note that the battery was always kept out of view during the plastic repairs.

A weller-type soldering gun uses transformer (less than 1 volt - maybe close to 0.5v if I remember correctly). I think the output voltage may be too low to heat a staple red-hot, but it should still work at a slower, safer and less smelly rate than the 12v battery version. A temp of 200-250C should be plenty for most plastics. A steadier hand will be needed at lower heat because a larger area will soften before the staple sinks to a suitable level.

The Weller works on the same principle as a spot welder, a single turn, shorted transformer secondary, the smallest square area point in the secondary produces the heat.

I use the un with 10 and 12awg solid wire
.12awg turns cherry red. I formed wire 1/2 way around large connectors to transfer the heat better..got idea off the web years ago