Weller TCP handle grips - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 10:16:07 am
content: Finally unboxed my new Weller WTCP 51 iron and PSU last night. Turns out it's slightly different to my old TCP iron. It doesn't have a foam grip on it.Does anyone know if you can get a body with a foam grip built in anywhere? I've googled and ebayed to no avail so far.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 07:28:09 pm
content: Just swap the foam?

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 07:36:21 pm
content: I don't own the old iron any more

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 07:51:00 pm
content: The old iron was the US version.I bought my first TCP in 1976, and it was exactly as your new one.I do not think you can find anywhere one of the old model (obviously in new conditions, on E-Bay sometimes an used one is available).I must say that I've never felt a need for the foam grip...Best regards

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 07:52:56 pm
content: I bought a new TCP201 back in November and it looks like the old one.Got it from Mouser.

author: wblock
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 08:32:01 pm
content: Cut up a foam bike handgrip?

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 09:54:02 pm
content: Thanks all. I'm going to do withoutKind of wish I'd never sold the first one, but I had to eat

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 10:00:48 pm
content: I always used to remove the foam grips from the bench irons because after many years use, they were too revolting to touch and impossible to clean. At least the iron handle itself is wipe-clean.

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 11:07:30 pm
content: That's a fair point actually. Scrapping the idea entirely.

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 12:38:26 am
content: Quote from: Ian.M on January 22, 2016, 10:00:48 pmThat's odd;I have never experienced that. The grip on my old TC201 is just as good as ever, and it has seen thousands of hours of use, I guess it pays to wash your hands before soldering

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 01:24:35 am
content: They'd seen a hard life. Previously owned by an ethnic sweatshop, and we picked them up in a job lot of gear and parts when they went out of business. The foam grips were sticky and crumbling - %DEITY% only knows what they had been contaminated with, though I suspect industrial quantities of ghee and cardamom flavoured sugar sirup off their workers hands, + flux and WD40! After replacing the bits (I swear that one of them was down to half thickness 1cm from the tip with a 45 deg bend in it, and another looked like it could have been passed off as a relic nail from the true cross!), cleaning up the PSUs and giving the magstat switches a bit of TLC we ran them another five years before finally exporting them to a TV studio in Syria!

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 02:08:02 am
content: Is it this one?http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weller-Cooper-Tools-SHA1-NSPP-Cushion-Grip-Sleeve-Expedited-Shipping-/281745563797http://www.fordelectronics.com/WELLER-SHA1-Cushion-Grip-Sleeve-for-EC1201P-Iron_p_384.html

author: MrSlack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2016, 07:47:56 am
content: That's the ones! Thank you!