# Vibrating 150w soldering iron? Normal?

## Do you think it's?

• ### RUN! RUN FAST!

• Total voters
2
• Poll closed .

#### PrincessWoona

Joined Nov 30, 2015
53

#### #12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,210
I paid $50 for a Weller Brand 250 watt soldering gun, just to put the grounds on the sheet metal chassis. It is also the right tool for splicing 12 gauge wires in an automobile wiring loom. It doesn't have very many jobs, but the right tool for the job is worth MY money. Personally, I use everything from a BIC lighter to an oxy-acetylene torch to do everything from heat up heat shrink tubing to cutting steel with fire...but I'm not normal. Thread Starter #### PrincessWoona Joined Nov 30, 2015 53 I paid$50 for a Weller Brand 250 watt soldering gun, just to put the grounds on the sheet metal chassis.
It is also the right tool for splicing 12 gauge wires in an automobile wiring loom.
It doesn't have very many jobs, but the right tool for the job is worth MY money.

Personally, I use everything from a BIC lighter to an oxy-acetylene torch to do everything from heat up heat shrink tubing to cutting steel with fire...but I'm not normal.
Well I found through many a time just get the right tool. I've screwed up a few things and had a much harder time. This is more about wood working but still applies. Also don't worry, I'm also not normal

Reactions: #12

#### ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,539
Yes,does the soldering iron produce some sort of a hum and is it vibrating at high frequency?
Is it one of those instant heat solder guns with a transformer in the body and the element/tip is a loop of copper?

That might well hum because of loose laminations in the transformer core.

#### PrincessWoona

Joined Nov 30, 2015
53
It's caused by Emf generated from the heater coil which most likely causes the heatsink to vibrate especially when it expands from the heat and becomes a bit loose.
Your response makes a lot of sense. I guess that must be what it is since there shouldn't be anything loose. Well as long as it doesn't blow up my hand it's fine for now. Until I can afford that super fancy \$15 model

#### PrincessWoona

Joined Nov 30, 2015
53
Is it one of those instant heat solder guns with a transformer in the body and the element/tip is a loop of copper?

That might well hum because of loose lamination's in the transformer core.
Nope. This is just straight plug in and heat up. I have seen that explanation before for like "wall warts" and inductors.

#### #12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,210
One of the less known facts about magnetism is that it actually causes the steel laminations to change size.

It isn't very much, but you can bet your bippy that a multi killowatt electrical substation will obviously hum. It is merely less annoying in one or two hundred watt sizes.

#### PrincessWoona

Joined Nov 30, 2015
53
One of the less known facts about magnetism is that it actually causes the steel laminations to change size.

It isn't very much, but you can bet your bippy that a multi killowatt electrical substation will obviously hum. It is merely less annoying in one or two hundred watt sizes.
Now that is a cool fact to know. I heard before in large transformers like for houses and stadium lights humming but never really thought why. It must just be it allows just barely enough space to move and make noise. Well i figured out I shouldn't fear the vibration of the iron but rather the iron deciding to take a trip and visit his good old friend mr.carpet.

#### SLK001

Joined Nov 29, 2011
1,548
The vibrating is a 60Hz hum due to the transformer not being well built. The flux density is quite high inside the tranformer and if the laminations aren't securely glued together, then they will vibrate at the AC frequency rate.

#### ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,539
One of the less known facts about magnetism is that it actually causes the steel laminations to change size.

It isn't very much, but you can bet your bippy that a multi killowatt electrical substation will obviously hum. It is merely less annoying in one or two hundred watt sizes.
Some start off humming - then go bang.

#### ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,539

#### Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
11,417
Since the soldering iron has no laminations the noise is produced by some other mechanism. If the element is a helix of resistance wire then adjacent turns tend to repel each other as a result of curent flow. This could cause mains-frequency vibration.
{"extraction_info": {"found_math": true, "script_math_tex": 0, "script_math_asciimath": 0, "math_annotations": 0, "math_alttext": 0, "mathml": 0, "mathjax_tag": 0, "mathjax_inline_tex": 1, "mathjax_display_tex": 0, "mathjax_asciimath": 0, "img_math": 0, "codecogs_latex": 0, "wp_latex": 0, "mimetex.cgi": 0, "/images/math/codecogs": 0, "mathtex.cgi": 0, "katex": 0, "math-container": 0, "wp-katex-eq": 0, "align": 0, "equation": 0, "x-ck12": 0, "texerror": 0, "math_score": 0.4082711935043335, "perplexity": 2906.525182711383}, "config": {"markdown_headings": true, "markdown_code": true, "boilerplate_config": {"ratio_threshold": 0.18, "absolute_threshold": 10, "end_threshold": 15, "enable": true}, "remove_buttons": true, "remove_image_figures": true, "remove_link_clusters": true, "table_config": {"min_rows": 2, "min_cols": 3, "format": "plain"}, "remove_chinese": true, "remove_edit_buttons": true, "extract_latex": true}, "warc_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739048.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200813161908-20200813191908-00094.warc.gz"}