The element possibly burned out because it isn’t made for that kind of load (heating that whole knob). Or, maybe it was near failure anyway, and it just happened to give up while being used to reflow that time. Even if it was new, unused, it could have had poor tolerance or a manufacturing error. Still, a bum deal to have it go out, and the fluorescent tube as well. 
I hope you get back on track soon.
Aah, the joys of a man cave. To get to this you have to move that. And to finish making this you need to finish making that so you can use it to make this.
Good luck mate.
I don’t think it was the heating coil.
I think the electronics decided to stop working.
There was a red LED on the PCB (which was originally in the handle of the soldering iron), and all seemwed fine, it heated up, it shut off and then a few times it went on and off, keeping the temperature stable, and then it went off for good…
It just died on me…
Managed to remove an XP-L from a LED board and that was all it ever did…
Oh well… Sh… happens.
I have the LEDs placed and working just now.
2 strips of 15x 5730 LEDs running an easy 5 Watts (0.33 Watt per LED) using 3S 600mA mains drivers, on 40cm lengths of aluminium curtain rail.
LEDs are 3000K (specified as 2700K but it’s a bit cooler) 95CRI Osram Duris E5 (new old stock) from a German Ebay vendor.
Nice lights.
Could do with some diffusing covers though…
Not really work lights, but for that i have a headlamp. 
Nothing beats a good floody headlamp.
Cool
Several builds down to the wire this year for one reason or another - I hope you can get your build finished!
….aaaaaaannnndd i’m out of the ‘race’….
EVERYTHING went wrong…
All 3 LEDs were broken due to bending LED board, so i put on 3 new ones.
Problem solved, right?
Nope…
Something else must have gone wrong too, because i suddenly had only 1 mode Direct drive.
Yes, that would be the - minus making a short with the body.
And then the + wire broke off when investigating.
So, i had to get my pipe cutter to cut of the head, but the because of the epoxy potting i tore off some parts of the driver.
Soldered them back, but it didn’t work anymore…
All would have been well if i didn’t have broken and short circuiting LEDs from bending the LED board flat with a tap with a hammer on a rod placed in the centre of the board earlier…
Now it’s all for nothing, or at least, for this contest / build off.
Crap, crap, crap…
I feel your frustration Jerommel. You showed us some amazing skills. Dont let it eat you up. 
Still well done Jerommel! I did not even dare to start with a scratch build, while you did start and even came up with some really cool concepts! 
Yeah…
I still can’t believe the + wire just broke off…
It broke off where the wire couldn’t even bend, 3 to 4 mm inside the epoxy…
But oh well, it was very educational…
The battery with charger and switch in the tube still work, so i can put a new head on it eventually…
We’ll see…
Thanks Djozz.
Better luck next time.
Hey, sorry to hear this
I was liking the concept and work!
Don’t lay your arms down, pick were you stopped and restart, even if it is not for the contest 
The time invested so far is much more than the one remaining to get a full working light
Very oldskool, very cool 8)
Sorry to hear you’ve hit a wall. This is an amazing build so far. Would like to have seen the end product.
That sucks, but it was great to see what you had done
Maybe jam it back together & bypass the driver for direct drive?
Sorry for the bad luck…. 
dt
Thanks all for your condolences.
Yeah, I’m also sorry. Sometimes everything goes wrong.
To bad Jeroen. Better luck next year.
Maybe some one in Europe can send you some spare parts to finish?
My builds been a pain also so much wasted work on parts i didn’t need lol. I take it as a learning experience i guess.