Left Soldering Iron On . . . For Two Months!

Man, Terry you are lucky.

You might want to by a Power Ball ticket !!!!!!!!!!

Terry, I'm always worried about doing something like that. Glad you had a good outcome.

Tom

I always consider myself lucky if l don't burn myself, and set it down on concrete floor to cool after using...l trust those things like a chainsaw, and am VERY careful with them.  You have lucked out.

Holy Moly!  For 'lucky outcome'....this has to rank right up there, pal!!

OTOH, it reminds me of a situation in my own life.  After both my parents passed away within 4 months of each other in 1984, the family home was sold.  While my two sisters dealt with the upstairs two floors, I confined myself to the basement....Dad's workshop...his 'man-cave', if you will, of 52 years.  It was a sad and somewhat hallowed experience....taking apart what he had created, used, cherished.

Dad had been pretty savvy when it came to wiring things.  But everyone, as Terry's experience shows, can make a mistake now and then.  Dad had what probably was one of Sears' original 2-bulb flourescent light fixtures hanging over his workbench (which he made, of course!)  Apparently the light fixture came factory-equipped with a short length of wire with a plug on the end.....clearly not enough to reach a wall outlet, but only an outlet mounted on/in the ceiling.  There was a pull-chain from the light fixture for turning it on or off.

Dad had connected the light to a nearby wall outlet by using a simple two-wire extension cord.  The cord was draped over to the wall using a series of metal hooks fastened to the ceiling joist side.  From there it simply hung down to be plugged into the wall outlet.  And there it had sat for, oh, maybe 30-40 years.  I remember the bulbs need replacement at least once....probably more...but other than that, all seemed normal.

On the day I finally had removed the workbench and was ready to take down the light fixture, I pulled the plug from the wall.......and was stunned at what happened next.  Apparently the extension cord had thoroughly dried out from sitting up in the ceiling area, and most of the cord's insulation shattered and came raining down as I finally jostled the wire.  

And there up along the old ceiling joist sat two bare wires hanging on the metal hooks.

Well, needless to say, I thanked the good Lord that 1) I had pulled the plug at the wall before going any further, and 2) someone/something else had not jostled the wires enough to cause a short circuit against that ceiling which would probably caused a devastating fire.  Obviously it was a hugely teachable moment in my life, which has increased my paranoia in considering the use, placement, and quality of any electrical extension cord!!

So, Terry......   Much more to be thankful for this coming week, eh what???

KD

LOL LOL LOL ROFLMAO LOL, sorry.  Gotta pull myself together after that one.  LOL LOL

Rick

An advantage of those spring coil soldering iron rests, like you see on bases, is the safety of them if the iron is forgotten about.

I made two little signs that hang just above the lighting switches for my garage.  One says, "Soldering iron unplugged ?"  the second says, "Heater turned off ?"  

I've done the same thing, only the longest I left it on (so far) was about 4-5 hours or so. My work bench is powered from my train power circuit which has a switch (next to the light switch) that turns everything off when I go upstairs, which helps. 

I have considered getting a timer for my soldering iron and setting it for an hour or so. If you are working with, just reset it and keep going if it times out. After the time I left it on for a few hours I have been thinking about it a little more and this thread may just get me going on it.

I left mine on and went out of town for the weekend. Halfway there I realized I forgot to turn it off and called my dad to go over to my apartment n shut it off. Thankfully I remembered. After that I built a timer from an SSAC timer an outlet and a momentary push button switch. Now when I use my soldering station and glue gun I push the button and tgecoutlets turns in for 30 minutes. It's now a fire n forget system and if I work longer I just push the button again.

One nice thing about my Weller soldering guns, you cannot leave them on.
You have to hold in the trigger to get any heat.

I am joining you on that very soon. Just ordered a timer with 5, 15, 30 & 60 min and 2 & 4 hour push buttons on ebay for >$9 to do exactly that. Now I'm thinking maybe I should have gotten two of them. It was free shipping and they have more so I can always re-order. 

A timer is a good idea.

I use a gun a lot, but comparing is like comparing a magic wand to an elephant gun for those less skilled.

No criticism here as I have done my share of bonehead mistakes but you are very lucky. Thank God no one got hurt. One time I left my soldering iron on and about an hour later I realized it. I felt like I had dodged a bullet. 

Wow,can't believe you wanted to share that with us,we all make dumb moves that's how we learn....

You wanna see a dumb move, backed into my friends corvette that I knew was there

I have never backed into anything until I got this truck. I feel pretty bad but he couldn't have been cooler about it. It's just a car, could've been worse, don't even worry about it. Those were his statements

Matt Makens posted:

You wanna see a dumb move, backed into my friends corvette that I knew was there

That isn't going to buff out..... good news it can be fixed. 

Matt - Glad that wasn't mine!! I've been known to have anger issues... 

Many years ago, I was building a catenary system for my Hi-Rail layout.  I built it using 1/16" brass rod.  I did all of the work in place on the layout.  I had a small gas torch.  Can't remember if it was butane or propane, but it had to be lit by an open flame, so I had a candle burning in a tuna fish can.  Well long story short, we all went out and about two miles down the road, I remembered the cable.  Did I blow it out or not.  I turned around and drove back home to find it still burning.  Most likely nothing would have happened since it was sitting in a can, but I was shaken just the same.