So... You guys are saying that just soaking in isopropyl or Everclear will remove the carmellized/hardened buildup on the heater coils of an atty? (mine are m-series) I've been soaking in Pepsi and then overnight in 158proof ABC brand alchohol (pretty much the same as Everclear, which they don't carry). I just looked with a microscope and they do seem "fair" although I think most all of them I also peroxide-until-dry burned (no more than 3.3V) and then scraped with a super sharply pointed voltmeter "needle probe", then soaked in super-hot water from a coffee machine. So I'm still somewhat up in the air as to what the minimum is that works "well".
As an aside, I *have* found that very high heat will boil the stuff right off. Heat the coil with a soldering iron (700deg F) and a little Ruby Flux and squirt hard with alchohol from a syringe and it just washes it all away and the atty looks brand new. Not a good option for most, I agree, especially for non-drip type m-series attys that don't leave any room to get the tip in there. I found this stuff out while repairing a batch of attys that had failed/gone high resistance and had disassembled the attys. Takes a long dwell with the iron to heat up the connection from the coil to the pin/wire that goes to the atty connector. The white plastic housing must be very high temp plastic - a super hot soldering tip doesn't even begin to melt it, which is a good thing.
Here's a little info for anyone wanting to repair attys or keep from burning them out. Most of the failures I've seen (especially since quitting applying 5V!) are either the wire breaking off of the center pin of the connector or else breaking at the solder joint where the coil wire is wrapped around the pin/wire-end that goes to the wire that connects to the center connector pin. I attribute this to the center pin turning a tiny bit each time you screw it onto a battery. When the pins of the atty and batt make contact, many times one or the other will rotate as you tighten a little more. Easy to tell because, when you take it apart, you can see that the wire has been twisted ariound and around until it broke at the solder connection to the center pin or has pulled on the connection to the heater coil and broken there. Most all of the dead batts I've fixed have failed from this same thing. So the thing is to try to never over-tighten the battery. Typically, when I fix one, I put a drop of Zap-a-Gap gemstone glue in to keep the center pins from being able to rotate anymore.
Wow - long post. just trying to disseminate info and also verify the Everclear soak effectivness...
C-ya,
Rick
