Old soldering irons

[coolford]

Cleaning out I found 21 soldering irons in a box.  Decided to make a display out of some of them and get rid of the rest.  Here is the display I made up.  Note: I hid the handles as they are all a mess.

[Bill Houghton]

Nice.  Out here, these are called "soldering coppers," to distinguish them from (electrical) soldering irons.  The term makes sense, since it's the big chunk o' copper that's the critical piece.

There is an astonishing number of those out there, from the days when (a) lots more joints were made with solder than now, and (b) heating up a soldering copper was how you made the joint.  I've got my fair share of them, and I do solder architectural flashing on my house remodels (still the best way); but I'll confess that, after I got a 200 watt soldering iron, I put the coppers away.  It's a lot easier to plug the iron in than it is to haul out the stove I made to heat the coppers.

[oldgoaly]

That's a good idea! I lack the art gene, got 2 fart genes instead....

[lptools]

Hello, Coolford. Nice display!! I  have a few of those around here, and just recently I realized that a couple were stamped for size, or with a company name. Did you notice any markings? Thanks, Lou

[coolford]

Lou----Yes, some were stamped for size and I selected five that were, a 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.  I didn't have a five.  In the display from the right going left are the 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 with no markings on the two smaller ones.  And, three of the seven have maker markings.

[gibsontool]

Nice display. I like your idea of hiding the handles because they are usually a mess.