Grounding soldering Iron

[keyboardcowboy]

Will connecting the tip of a soldering iron to ground, ground it?...or is there anything else to be done

[stj]

Re: Grounding soldering Iron

i wouldnt ground it directly,
feed it through a high value resistor like 2m2 or 4m7

if it's not earthed you can get static buildup.
if it is earthed and you touch a large charged capacitor or try to solder a live circuit it can spark.

by using a resistor to limit the current you eliminate both problems.
you should find a grounding connection in the iron handle - then again, it should already have a ground wire on it unless it's total junk designed to burn patterns into wood from a craft shop or something.

[keyboardcowboy]

Re: Grounding soldering Iron

it really is cheap.the handle is made of plastic..the metallic body should be connected to ground through a resistor???

[stj]

Re: Grounding soldering Iron

i would do it that way.
most are just connected directly though.

[ratdude747]

Re: Grounding soldering Iron

they make 3 prong irons you know... my xytronic 258 is...

[Krankshaft]

Re: Grounding soldering Iron

Yes the metallic tip retaining collar should be grounded. Hopefully it's a good iron where you remove the bolt around the collar slip it off and the tip comes off the heating element. That way to collar will ground the tip by contact.

Sounds like alot of work for a crap iron probably better off saving for an electronics grade iron. Looks to me like this one was designed for professional wood burning.