Ok… the little patient finally arrived and already felt quite at home right next to one of my own homemade MistyMahogany logs
An 18/19 mm GonG was included after all and my 14 mm lab glass stems, I use for making dd stems and GonGs are also a perfect fit
Seems rather an older unit, as the leads were directly soldered to the C7 connector, while the newer ones all have crimp terminals instead, I read somewhere in the thread?
Wiring and soldering connections looked all good and rock solid so far, but the heater cartridge is definitively gone! Draws no current at all
Heater also showed some scorch marks at its bottom and looking at the rather battered looking 230v/110v transformer coming with the unit (also some loose parts rattling around in there), I'd guess we have a good idea, who the culprit was here
So I dispensed with the niceties, removed the 110v AC innards and simply rewired for 12v DC.
Set in a 10w RepRap cartridge heater (ceramic core with ss shielding).
Widened the existing hole for the LED to accommodate the DC jack.
Threaded in the jack, soldered the leads with RoHS compliant lead free high temp solder and finally plugged it up again.
Sanded down some scratches with 180, 240, 400 & 600 grt and applied a fresh coat of wood butter
Welcome back among the living, me little Nano