I mutilated the lantern June 20, 2003, 05:48:00 pm Yahoo Message Number: 23643Steve...you inspired me to pull the lantern out of the trash and try again....I mutilated it! The original lead was a ring type with a rivet attachment to the plastic base. I got a good signal on the broken rivet...but when I tried again to solder it I succeeded in melting the plastic around the rivet, burying the exposed rivet, then melting the insulation on the wires. So I gave up. Maybe because it was riveted to plastic made it not a good solder candidate? But...I've got the "tinker" bug now...gimme something to fix! Thanks everyone for indulging the topic, I know it's not LD-related.Sue[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: I mutilated the lantern Reply #1 – June 20, 2003, 07:42:53 pm Yahoo Message Number: 23649"when I tried again to solder it I succeeded in melting the plastic around the rivet, burying the exposed rivet, then melting the insulation on the wires." Don't feel bad, Sue. This kind of thing can be almost impossible to fix. It's typical of cheap battery-operated appliances--especially flashlights--to have contacts that are riveted to styrene or other low-temp plastic, and no matter how carefully you heat them, there's a good chance the whole connection will turn into a nasty-smelling puddle of plastic goo before you get a good solder joint. One thing that helps is the right size soldering iron. For stained glass, 100W is a good size, but for what you're doing, 30W max is appropriate. I don't know what rating iron you were using, but if it was a big one (or a soldering gun), it was probably making matters worse by overheating the joint. But again, devices like your lantern can be hard to repair even for an experienced worker with a lightweight iron, so don't let this experience get you down--keep that tinkering urge going! If the thing is already broken, you have nothing to lose by trying to fix it, so by all means give it a go! At worst, you'll learn a few things and will be better prepared next time. And if you do end up tossing it, don't forget to save the bulb for use in another lantern.Andy Baird :-)
I mutilated the lantern Reply #2 – June 21, 2003, 01:21:57 am Yahoo Message Number: 23659Thanks Andy!
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