Weller soldering iron not hot enough

[Faringdon]

Hi,
 Struggling to solder with Weller WTCP51  soldering power supply, and TCP-S solder pencil, with adapter and tip (LT C 3.2mm) as attached.
I went through all the proper ordering numbers....is it just always rubbish due to the adapter?

[GLouie]

Is this a used, vintage unit?
I would first check the pencil cable. I had an older WTCP unit where the cable wire strands were broken and making intermittent contact, and the internal insulation was disintegrating (it was a very old unit). Sometimes the iron would seem to work fine, sometimes not. I used a very flexible microphone cable as a replacement, losing the silicone jacket feature.

[Messtechniker]

Is this a used, vintage unit?
I would first check the pencil cable. I had an older WTCP unit where the cable wire strands were broken and making intermittent contact, and the internal insulation was disintegrating (it was a very old unit). Sometimes the iron would seem to work fine, sometimes not. I used a very flexible microphone cable as a replacement, losing the silicone jacket feature.

Had the same problem with my WECP of 1975 or so.  Initially also replaced the silicone cable with a microphone cable, because it is hard to find a 5 core silicone cable. Because of my self frequently bruising the cable, I eventually had to bite the bullet and got the proper silicone cable for some 25 EURs quite some time ago. From a source which no longer exists. Replacement cable is still going stong.

[Gyro]

Those separate tips and adaptors are rubbish for thermal conductivity. Find some original all-in-one tips (PT series -  RS and Farnell sell them).

[Stray Electron]

  I have the same WTCP-51 iron and used it for many years and it wored fine for small stuff. But I always use Weller tips with it.  GLouise is also right, all of those old Weller irons are prone to failed wire conductors. But you can often hold them in a different position and they will work so it's pretty easy to tell when it's a broken lead.

  Is it heating at all or is it just not getting hot enough?  When you say that it's not getting hot enough do you mean that it wouldn't heat your solder joint or will it not even melt solder from the roll?  Those irons are very low powered and they will easily get hot enough to melt solder from a roll but then if you try to solder large joint of something that can dissipate a lot of heat the solder freezes because the joint or the device draws the heat from the soldering tip. If that's the case, then you need to use a higher wattage (not higher temperature!) iron.