Iron Resurrection

For a while now, my electric bending iron has been a bit wonky and sorting it out, is one of those jobs that keeps getting put to the back.

So, before I bend the the ebony bindings for the archtop, I thought I'd take it apart, only to find this………..

 I was amazed at how much the wood had burnt, no wonder it was wonky! My main concern however, was the fact the earth wire had burnt through and wasn’t connected anymore. I cleaned out most of the burnt wood with a router.

 And then plugged the hole with a piece of scrap mahogany.

The base was then topped off with a piece of heat-resistant calcium silicate board.

 

After a bit of soldering………..

 The “iron” itself was fixed down with some new stainless steel screws.

If my archive is correct I’ve used this particular iron on 76 instruments, so now after some fettling we should be good for the next 76!