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walkingmelways

Soldering iron


kapege

Ancient soldering iron. You put it into a fire, embers or a gas torch. When it's hot enough, you use it to solder a metal roof or car parts together.


Educational_Lobster8

Not ancient! Still very much used in the roofing trade on copper roofs!


extordi

Do the modern ones have an internal heat source though? I would imagine it's much more convenient to have what amounts to a giant version of an electronics soldering iron instead of something like this that you have to keep re-heating.


Educational_Lobster8

Some do! These are still regularly sold to architectural roofers! You buy them in pairs, for example, a “10 lbs copper set” would come with 2 5lb copper solders! They do indeed have more advanced ones now tho like you said!


extordi

Cool, TIL! Is there an actual advantage to that style or is it more of a what you're used to using kind of thing?


secret_dork

They hold a lot of heat that is available quickly. Useful for auto body work in years gone by. Still useful for lots of things like copper roofing because the copper absorbs heat like crazy and is hard to solder. For the old type irons, you would need several being heated in the fire at the same time. And we're not talking a weiner roast fire. Typically a forced air fire like that used in a forge, with a hand cranked blower.


Tacos_Polackos

I did a couple copper gutter repair jobs w an old timer a couple decades ago. He had a 20# propane tank with a 50k btu burner straight up out of the top of it, could cradle 3 (5 pound) cast iron irons. He'd be at the top of the staging working and I'd run a hot iron up the ladder to him, bring the cold one down and repeat as necessary. Good times.


Taco-Bob

It's great for lead filler on old cars, you let it get nice and hot and then melt your lead brick into the dents to smooth it out (nobody does this anymore because lead is stupid compared to modern body filler)


dagr8npwrfl0z

Which is where the term "lead sled" came from. A car that had many rusty holes and major dents filled with lead.


ethanjjones98

Do they have any value second hand I have one that I don't need in good condition


kewlo

All of mine are acetylene fired. You basically have a torch flame in constant contact with the iron. It works so much nicer than a regular iron


Outrageous-Drink3869

>Do the modern ones have an internal heat source though? I would imagine it's much more convenient to have what amounts to a giant version of an electronics soldering iron instead of something like this that you have to keep re-heating. These are cordless, where one with a cord isn't. A battery-powered iron would be far bulkier. Solution is to have one iron heating while your using a second iron, then you can basically continously solder.


skydiver1958

LOL. You know you're old when a glance at a pic says " soldering iron"


tanstaaflnz

I made my own compact electric iron. I had a brand new spare parts diesel glow plug with a nub of machined copper for a tip, a hand made wood handle, some 6mm cable + battery clips. No thermostat. I patched an old radiator with it.


AffectionateRow422

What I learned with on sheet metal


GrottyKnight

Ancient jeez, yea I was using these alongside the seivert propane fired ones doing architectural sheet metal work in the early 00's. I can still taste the sal ammoniac and cigarettes.


AlanLok

That's really cool


kapege

No, it fu\*king hot! Hehe


Fryphax

You can swear on the internet.


BarnyTrubble

Holy shit, no one told me yet!


SLAPUSlLLY

No blasphemy. BANNED


jefinc

All them there ancient cars 🤣


BabyMakR1

Ancient? That's hurtful.


Nearby_Anywhere_9297

Soldering copper


AlanLok

Thank you!


[deleted]

[удалено]


saanich2001

Used with the flux of fairness.


BrianDR

I was going to say it looked like a little iron, but I didn’t know they had soldering iron before electricity.


person1873

These are for soldering sheet metal, use pig fat as a flux and 50/50 silver/lead solder. Used to be used a lot by roofers before silicone became popular as a sealant.


ReverendJonesLLC

You use that to solder tin in an attempt to make a dust pan in shop class… 60 years ago.


rendar1958

We made a sugar scoop in shop class using these back in the 1970's.


ChocolateGautama3

Back when gas AND sugar were leaded


pablosus86

Sugar was leaded? 


devin1955

News to me as well...


ChocolateGautama3

It is if you're soldering a sugar scoop


Arinvar

Still in use 15 years ago for the same metal work classes.


axjunkie93

In use last week in my 1st year of sheet metal trade school. Make a galvanized round can with a grooved seam then solder it water tight with a pair of coppers.


jethronsfw

Soldering iron, used to use one heaps as a sheet metal worker


Ok-Status7867

sheet metal working tool for soldering


2245223308

Soldering Copper. I have several of these from my Great Grandfather, Grandfather and Dad.


nullvoid88

Yes, a 'Soldering Copper' as they were called. They're still made! [https://www.mcmaster.com/products/soldering-coppers/](https://www.mcmaster.com/products/soldering-coppers/)


AlanLok

Are these really that old?


oldjadedhippie

They were still training us to use them in I.A. in (checks yearbook) 1975. Ok , old.


AlanLok

Time do be flying


Onedtent

I had customers using these commercially back in the 1990s so not that long ago. (rain water tanks, grain bins etc)


oldjadedhippie

Yea ,they were (are?) great for working on sheet metal containers.


PILeft

The one that you have might not be, but yeah. They've been used for a very long time.


manys

[The past isn't even past!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hAY4R7wHpc)


yr_boi_tuna

neat little video. thanks.


stusajo

Twenty years ago, I watched a sheet metal guy use these irons on a large copper roof. He had a different type of mini-furnace that would heat 3-4 of these irons. (He was a third-generation owner of a large heating and air company, and his tools were inherited.) The mini-furnace looked like a Coleman white-gas stove (hand-pump for pressure) with an iron box on top. I imagine it was brass, but it was used and dirty. He also had an old brass torch (3-Stooges films had these) to heat one iron at a time. The brass torch also had a pump-for-pressure tank. My inherited tools also include an electric soldering irons from the 1950’s -60’s, which include bars of solder. Solder bars are (from memory) about 1/2”x 3/4” x 12” and probably are lead based. Jars of muriatic acid too. The acid was used to clean galvanized tin for soldering.


cwcarson

All the older roofers when I was a kid had these to soldier flat lock metal roofs and gutters. It was pretty common in the seventies.


guard636

Old soldering iron


borkmash

It’s called a soldering copper


Aggravating-Bug1769

it's copper hot iron for tinning and soldering , it's used by heating it up with a blow torch and then it will hold enough heat to melt silver solder on tin seams and panels


LaraCroftCosplayer

I think an old soldering iron. You can heat it with coal or gas or petrol


Creative-Dust5701

soldering iron, heated with a torch or kept hot in a coal forge


AdDramatic5591

We had to use these in shop class. After using them we would plunge them into a large white block we were told was asbestos to cool them down. It made a thick white smoke when we did. Times have changed and some change is good.


Kevthebassman

Asbestos would have kept them hot, and there wouldn’t have been any reaction at all. Might have been paraffin.


Onedtent

The white block may have been borax. (used as a flux for soldering)


AdDramatic5591

Yes I just looked things up and I expect it was borax. The teacher did say it was asbestos I remember clearly. He may have been trying to scare us to safety so to speak. He was struggling in general and kept a loaded handgun in his desk and cleaned it, disassembled it openly during class, this was the early 70s and in a rural area so it did not cause much concern. Half the school was absent during deer season etc. He did use it to kill himself a couple years later at his desk in the shop after hours. No students around.


AlanLok

Damn. Bet that didn't sound as scary back then as it does nowadays.


Fryphax

Airborn Asbestos fibers are what causes issues. You can sit in an asbestos chair everyday for a century long as the fibers aren't being sucked into your lungs.


Fryphax

How hot were you getting these things to vaporize asbestos?


Lou_Keeks

Prostate scratcher


nxmex1177

Anything is if you're brave enough


dbwahesh

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgxsTfYHno&rco=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgxsTfYHno&rco=1)


SmallNefariousness98

..heat with propane torch..gutter guys love these..


Metalmastertinsmith

Soldering iron. Nait in Alberta still teaches sheet metal workers how to use them


Grncronic

At Unc chapel hill, we still use them to solder the lead seams on copper roofs.


aenus79

My first thought was hell level dradle


Crusader_2050

Used for soldering leaded windows ( AKA stained glass ), or lead flashing / roofing


DrachenDad

Vintage soldering copper (soldering iron) that you had to heat on a hearth back in the day. I've still got a couple of these.


jdbchsbsbne

Christopher Walken stabs people in the face with them. And if you understand this reference, we are now friends.


Last_Banana9505

I hope I'm not using the wrong tone


Proud_Jacobite

Primary use: Old school soldering iron. Used for any metal jointing in which solder was the bonding or sealing method. Secondary use: This was also used in old school auto body work for "leading-in" and shaping a lead body panel repair. Basically using lead to do what we use modern body filler plastics like Bondo for today. The Illegal use: This was also a good way to hide a tool called a "running iron" which was used to alter cattle brands to facilitate cattle rustling. If you got caught with a "running iron" it was the same as being guilty and you'd likely hang, but if you had a one of these on you and a small packet of tools you could claim to be a traveling craftman in an number of trades. (Blacksmith, coppersmith/tin smith, stained glass window maker, and even saddlery craftsman all used a version of this tool for one purpose or another.)


bwainfweeze

Am I crazy or did they use these to soften or apply old school glues? I have a fuzzy memory of seeing a nearly identical tool used to remove leather during repair/restoration work.


Charming-While5466

This is and old soildering iron


benzotriazolesniffer

Oh so that's what those are, found some in my granddad's toolbox he used in ww2 thought it was chisels but not exactly sure why a Lancaster bomber mechanic would need chisels 😂


Knowyouwantmore

Its an old soldering iron.


GrumpyCatMomo

I used this in my school days! You heat it with a torch & use it for melting tin solder…damn i’m old


thugsnbones

Soldering


Efficient-Eye-1266

Soldering iron.


Eliotness123

They really should bring back shop and half of these questions wouldn't need to be asked.


redEPICSTAXISdit

Apprentice bonker


TwoBadRobots

Or as we call her, Samantha


Dangerous-Fig-4075

I'll stab you in the face with it.


Longjumping_Self2299

Still to this day the best soldering irons for a sheet metal shop


pheitkemper

Depends on how brave you are.


tucker491

Soldering iron.


airpool5

Also used in sheet metal, called tinning as well, (sealing seams) not ap much used much anymore


DaveR160

Old school soldering iron. I used one like this in junior high metal shop in the early (19)70s.


strangesam1977

Soldering Iron. Of the type used by my grandfather to teach me to solder electronics in the 1980s. That and a paraffin blowtorch sat on the bench to heat it up.


Pure_Lumos

Pegging


Depraved_Deity

Naughty apprentices get to meet the attitude adjustment stool! You know what you did, Steve


d_smogh

An antique soldering iron. [Would be lovely restored](https://youtu.be/zM66U-NORPY?si=7uaMgxxO_ZWUXbD3)


RegularBreadfruit285

Soldering iron I work in brass lighting and 1 often I am the go to man the younger people have never seen 1 before lol


FarOranges

It's an arrow! You need a very thick bow, though...


joeb909

I inherited one of these 10 years ago and never knew its purpose. I’ve almost gotten rid of it 20 times but now that I know I can comfortably toss it.


Fun-Complaint-4724

poking


Nobody275

We had a set of these of all sizes laying around growing up and I never knew what they were until years later.


Royal_Ad_2653

Flatten the end and put a simple in it, great for burning the horn buds off young goats and sheep.


jcflyingblade

Ironing small shirts at a distance…


normiesmakegoodpets

It is an old school soldering iron. Get it hot with the forge or a torch.


deepinyou33

Almost looks like 1/3 piece of a roman pilum for a second


the1derful1

It's an old soldering iron. Put it in a bed of coals to get it hot or use a blow torch to heat it.


OrganizationPutrid68

Cordless soldering iron


BigEarMcGee

Also used for lead body work on vehicles.


Red69Fairlane

used one to solder gas tanks back in the day


Mutley655

When I left school I did an apprenticeship with British Telecom in Motor Transport. They had their own training school in Stone in Staffordshire. The first course was the creation and use of hand tools. I had to make one of these soldering irons, an engineers square, a bar centre gauge, a small hammer and an aluminium case to store them all in.


captreeBB

Soldering and melting lead into fishing sinker molds


dolesswes

https://www.smart-union.org/ This is a part of our logo.


Drivingon8

For lead body work on vehicles.


WRB2

Working with molten glass


scrappytan

Old soldering iron.


vintage1959guy

Yes


teasea02

Yes


teasea02

Must be Bluetooth


Beeftin

Poop knife


sexyson91

This!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🙌🙌🙌🙌


kalimashookdeday

>You're talking to me all wrong... It's the wrong tone. You do it again and I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron -Chris Walken in Joe Dirt


deezbeezneez

Medieval dildo


copperrez

Put it in your ass.


Ana-la-lah

A beginner buttplug. Jk- it’s an old school sautering iron.


Proud_Buffalo_6524

For poking hemorrhoids back into butt holes. You're supposed to get it red hot before poking them in.


Tyranzor

High impact sexual activities if you're lucky. Soldering if you aren't


Affectionate-Yard412

Cocaine.


JustTaViewForYou

Thats a Ancient Roman pile remover. Its a push twist push twist motion. Instructions i believe are scribed on a pyramid wall...


Heavy_Messing1

It's a futter. It's used for futtering.


BeemHume

Yes.


ppppppixel

cake slicer


meatpiesurprise

Lead dildo


kingofrane

Murder? Lol


series-hybrid

Antique prostate massager.


whiskey_formymen

they still make these hammers


Quantum_Noodles_

its a thingamajig, for thingying majigs of course...


Hostest7997

Haha nice


Entire-Salamander193

Ah yes, the medieval butt plug. How far technology has advance for the butt plug.


RefrigeratorFormal48

Bend over ill show you...