measuring the temperature of a soldering ion?

[dentaku]

Last night I found a Weller WTCPS PU120 with what looks like a TC210 iron on the side of the road. It cleaned up nicely and the Magnastat switch seems to work because you can hear and feel it switch on and off while keeping the temperature constant.
The rather pointy conical tip looks like it's original to the unit so it's kind of crusty looking. It would be nicer if it wasn't so pointy too.

Question: What's the best way to measure the temperature of the tip?

I held my cheap hardware store K type thermocouple to the tip and it never gets over 270C. Then I melted a blob of solder onto a piece of fiberglassed plywood, held the iron in the tiny blob and stuck the thermocouple in the molten solder. Using this method it measures 340C.

Is this a valid method for measuring the temperature of a soldering iron?

ALSO: What's the best place to find tips for this blue nameless white silicone corded 24V 42Watt Weller iron?
According to the TC201 documentation changing the tip changes the temperature somehow.

[Rufus]

It takes PT series tips. The tips have a number stamped on the end which is the temperature / 100 F.

[i4004]

http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_fg101.html

and i could bet i saw chinese ripoffs on ebay rather cheap...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Inch-LCD-Soldering-Iron-Tip-Thermometer-Temperature-Tester-With-Sensors-/261508717465?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce3225b99

but the real test is to see if it melts the thing you want melted...some mighht have the temp but not the thermal capacity and they won't do if you need to heat chunky metal/solder parts...

[dentaku]

From the little bit I've used it I'm guessing the temperature is fine.
I unsoldered a barrel power jack which of course has rather large tabs instead of just little round leads and it worked.

[dentaku]

It takes PT series tips. The tips have a number stamped on the end which is the temperature / 100 F.

OK. I just unscrewed the tip, looked inside and I can see a 7 so it's a 700F tip. 340C is 644F so that would be logical considering it's an old tarnished overly pointy tip.

The tips only seem to be around $4 so that's good.

I also did some more research and because my iron has the plastic bit over the connector that you twist to lock into the power supply it is a TC-201T (as opposed to the older TC-201 and TC-201P) so that's good to know. It used the same PT tips anyway.

[nanofrog]

Still amazes me at times what people will throw away.  Nice rescue BTW.   

[dentaku]

Still amazes me at times what people will throw away.  Nice rescue BTW.   

Considering the driveway it was sitting across form I think I know who it belonged to. He died a while ago so his wife was getting rid of some stuff.

[nanofrog]

Still amazes me at times what people will throw away.  Nice rescue BTW.   

Considering the driveway it was sitting across form I think I know who it belonged to. He died a while ago so his wife was getting rid of some stuff.

Sad to hear that on multiple levels.

Perhaps it might be nice to have a chat with her.

[dentaku]

Still amazes me at times what people will throw away.  Nice rescue BTW.   

Considering the driveway it was sitting across form I think I know who it belonged to. He died a while ago so his wife was getting rid of some stuff.

Sad to hear that on multiple levels.

Perhaps it might be nice to have a chat with her.

It's the bi-annual "big garbage day" this Saturday so people are already putting out stuff that normally doesn't belong in the regular garbage.
They don't take electronics but people still haven't figured this out so sometimes you find interesting stuff on the side of the road that was rejected.
My bench power supply is partly built from parts I've found this way. The regulators and caps are brand new though, I wouldn't use old recycled electrolytics.