I, too, found the area around the R-4B can cap to be very tight for a big iron. I have a 100W American Beauty that I bought for a buck at my first hamfest in 1982. It has soldered copperweld antenna wire outside in 10 degree weather and even repaired a rear window defroster in an old Volvo once, but I couldn't get enough of the joint to melt with the cap still installed.
Rather than risk melting wires around the area (one of which is shielded!), I took a small HSS router-style bit with my Dremel and cut off one tab without nicking the chassis. The other tab was way too close to the main wiring harness and the audio transformer for me to attempt removal, so I just twisted the can out and left that tab. I only had to install the new one about 5 degrees rotated, and soldered two adjacent tabs. Soldering, in this case, is much easier than desoldering and I got two good, shiny, non-blobbed joints. The receiver sounds much better with the new caps. Steve Wedge, W1ES/4 "I can't complain, but sometimes I still do." - Joe Walsh If the above message appears, it came from Steve's Son of Laptop! Message: 2 Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:06:42 -0400 From: "Paul Christensen" <w...@arrl.net> To: <Drakelist@zerobeat.net> Subject: Re: [Drakelist] T4XB Question Message-ID: <021401cc9351$9daac3f0$1d3ca8c0@office> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Bob, Good feedback. In retrospect, I probably should have gone with either a 100 or 150-watt iron with the high mass shaft ahead of the tip. The perceived size of these irons can be deceiving. I was very surprised by the weight and size of the 200-watt Hexacon iron. It's really too large and heavy to manipulate into small areas, especially where a lot of circuit wiring comes in proximity to the chassis can tabs. Paul, W9AC
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