Non melty soldering iron leads

[DrStrangelove]

The Antex X25 thread reminded me of the couple of days I spent in work  changing all the class Antex CS soldering iron leads to silicone.

I was prompted to do this my the discovery of several soldering irons that had just passed PAT testing (external firm) with melted leads.

I thought there was a requirement for some sort of inspection rather than just plugging the thing in a magic box & pressing a button.

But there you go.

The added advantage is that the silicone leads are much more flexible.

And it occupied an otherwise tedious couple of days during the summer vac when tumble weed might be viewed rolling along the corridors with the sound of a train whistle in the distance.

[DrStrangelove]

Which then reminded me of a nearer my God to thee moment when a chap was busy soldering away at his desk and missed the soldering iron holder as he put it down.

Said soldering iron slid along the desk until it met a metal cabinet giving an almighty bang.

Turned out in those non prefitted mains plug days that the Earth lead had come undone and was now connected to the Live.

Exciting times.

[radioman]

I was prompted to do this my the discovery of several soldering irons that had just passed PAT testing (external firm) with melted leads.

I thought there was a requirement for some sort of inspection rather than just plugging the thing in a magic box & pressing a button.

Those irons should not have passed if they had damaged mains leads - a large part of the P.A.Test is a visual inspection.
When I worked as a tech. at the local college I had to test everything in our department and the earth bonding plus insulation tests should only be done after the visual inspection.
Clearly the external firm were simply doing a 'box ticking' exercise....

As for damaged/melted mains leads, certain students just love to damage equipment.... like you, our mains soldering irons had their leads changed to burn-proof types but when we replaced those irons with some Weller low-voltage irons which had silicone leads as standard, they started melting holes into the PSU cases instead!

Andy

[Refugee]

As for damaged/melted mains leads, certain students just love to damage equipment.... like you, our mains soldering irons had their leads changed to burn-proof types but when we replaced those irons with some Weller low-voltage irons which had silicone leads as standard, they started melting holes into the PSU cases instead!

Andy

They will no doubt find something else after you have replaced the PSUs with metal cased ones.

[BusyBee]

It was my experience that in doing numerous PAT tests over the years virtually nothing actually failed the test, in fact the tester indicating faulty house wiring was much more common. It was the visual inspection that really showed the problems. Equipment can be falling apart but still pass electrical tests. Of the equipment which failed the tests it was normally marginal earth continuity which was the issue. I am talking about well maintained equipment though.

Tracy

[DrStrangelove]

yes, it was the complete lack of any visual inspection that impressed me the most.

Along with the PAT labels that fell off about 5 minutes after the bloke had left the lab.

[Richard_FM]

I remember the soldering irons at my school had silicone covered leads.

[PerdioPal]

I had to "qualify" to do PAT testing, I did the exam first and got 100% then looked at the course, rubbish. It was an online thing. As said it seems to be just a box ticking (and not legally required) exercise, I do wonder however if something did electrocute someone who would be to blame?
Most is just common sense which seems to be far from common today.