The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Sunbeam Clothes Iron Salvage

    For just under twenty bucks, Mary has a new clothes iron and I harvested the heating element from the longsuffering Sunbeam iron:

    Sunbeam clothes iron - heater connections
    Sunbeam clothes iron – heater connections

    Per the notations:

    • AC Line enters on middle terminal to thermostat
    • Thermostat controlled Line on left terminal to heater
    • AC Neutral to heater terminal on right

    The heater measures 12.6 Ω cold, so 9.5 A → 1.1 kW.

    The iron had an insulating sleeve on the thermostat shaft capped with a plastic dial, which makes perfect sense for something in contact with the hot side of the AC power cord.

    The IC date codes suggest it’s been around since 2002, so it’s about two decades old. In that time, one of the two electrolytic capacitors succumbed to the plague:

    Sunbeam clothes iron - capacitor plague
    Sunbeam clothes iron – capacitor plague

    I think the relay and electronics implemented the iron’s timed shutoff function, but it does seem rather complex for that.