Than To Cut Textolite At Home

How to make a soldering iron with your own hands at home? Today this is a rather topical issue.

A soldering iron is one of the main tools of a handyman, along with a hammer, pliers and, of course, a screwdriver.

Of course, soldering irons are different, and their model and functionality differs depending on the purpose.

One type of soldering iron will be needed for the radiator of your car, and a completely different one can easily cope with such everyday tasks as soldering wires when they are extended, restoring flown network connectors and more.

For all this, a small, low-power soldering iron is suitable, just 25-40 watts which can be made independently (in the presence of time and desire).

Its advantage will also be that the quality of such a soldering iron will be an order of magnitude higher than the quality of many consumer goods tools available in retail chains, and the price is an order of magnitude lower.

To make a small electric soldering iron at home is not particularly difficult.

This tool is useful for working with miniature parts. for example, during soldering of various types of microcircuits, electronic watches, various kinds of microelements.

Used in electronics; In addition, with the help of a homemade soldering iron, you can easily assemble a charger for your mobile phone.

Method number 1. How to make a small soldering iron and how to make a battery powered soldering iron?

To make an electric soldering iron, we do not need a huge amount of improvised tools and materials.

All that is needed is a piece of copper wire from which we will make the tip of our soldering iron;

A piece of copper foil, a small length nichrome wire, and also a tube of tin (it will serve as a casing of an electric heater).

In addition, you need a heat-resistant plastic handle, a reliably insulated electrical cord; ordinary silicate glue and a little talcum powder to create an electrically insulating mass.

Perhaps none of the above, except, perhaps, copper foil is not able to cause difficulties in acquiring

However, if you still could not get this material, do not despair. Instead of copper foil, foil-coated fiberglass is quite suitable. the one from which printed circuits and boards are made.

In order to separate the foil from the fiberglass, it is necessary to heat it with an iron: simply hook on the edge of the foil, and, by the movement of the iron, wind the foil onto a previously prepared round rod.

The most important is smooth, uniform foil removal.
Next, we need an electrolyte (gas, of course, is also suitable), ordinary tweezers, pliers, locksmith’s tongs, coasters for covering parts with sticky mass, a rag to wipe tools and hands.

The power supply for the future electric soldering iron will be an ordinary power supply network lowered through a 220/12 volt converter ; the secondary winding of this device should compensate for the electric current 1A in the 12-ohm load.

For this, the NDR-110K transformer, which is used for the personnel scan in obsolete TV sets with tube transistors, may well suit us.

As you know, a modern LCD TV is not useful to us.

So, armed with a piece of copper wire, we proceed to the manufacture of a tip for the future miniature soldering iron.

Sharpen in the shape of a dihedral angle with radius 40˚ one of the ends of the segment. The edges of the angle obtained, which are the “cheeks” of the future sting, should be tinned.

The resulting tip will find its application in the heating element of the soldering iron.

Next. we will make an electrically insulating mass. On the example of an ordinary flour dough, we mix liquid glass (silicate glue) and talc. until a thick consistency.

The resulting mass in a thin layer must be applied to a cylindrical surface. A “brush” for this will be tweezers or a plate.

It should be noted that the mass obtained by kneading is very sticky, and, in order to prevent sticking of the tool, it must be abundantly sprinkled dry talcum powder.

Now we will “put” on our sting a tube (length. 30 mm) made of copper foil.

This will be the basis of our soldering iron heating element (the tip of the tip that will protrude from this tube should be no more than 10 mm long).

The tube must be smeared with a thin layer of electrically insulating mass. After this, you need to carefully dry it over the gas stove burner (at a temperature of at least 100-150 ° C) until the electrically insulating mass is completely “sintered”.

So, we have the base of the heating element, which we wrap with a heating spiral of nichrome wire (length. 350 mm, diameter. 0.2 mm).

It should be very tight, turn by turn, this base.

It is important to note that the lead ends of the wire must be left straight, one is 30 mm long, the other (“wraparound”) is 60 mm long.

The winding must be covered with an electrically insulating mass, and again, in the same volume, dry over the fire.

After the insulation layer covering the winding dries, the long end of the wire must be wrapped back and pressed to the tube.

Next. another, third, layer of insulating solution is applied, and drying is performed again.

The result of our activity was the heating element of the electric soldering iron.

The ends of the wire emerging from the heating element should also be coated (50% of the length) with an electrical insulating solution (the free length will subsequently be brought to the veins of the electric cord).

This process requires enhanced patience and painstaking work.

Finally, the last step on the road to creating an electric soldering iron with your own hands is its assembly.

Through the heat-resistant handle, it is necessary to thread the cord in heat-resistant insulation, and screw the ends of the nichrome electric heater to its bare veins.

The final procedure is another coating and drying.

It is necessary to insulate the bare ends of the joint of the heating element with the electric cord. Be careful not to get burned or get an electric shock.

And finally, we will integrate our electric heater into a commensurate protective tin case, which we will compatible with the handle. This is followed by a control inclusion of the device. This is one of the options for making a miniature soldering iron. Other tasks will require a different device design. Consider a number of interesting ideas.

Method number 2. Using a resistor

The most successful and uncomplicated solution to the problem of independent manufacture of an electric soldering iron will be the use of resistor technology. In this case, you do not need mains voltage. The device will operate in the range from 6 to 24 volts, so power will be provided by both galvanic cells and car batteries. This makes the design mobile. If the use of the soldering iron is stationary, then you can supply power from a conventional network through a step-down transformer 220 / 12V. To make a device with your own hands you will need:

Video: Than To Cut Textolite At Home

1. Resistor with a power of 7 watts and a resistance of 20 ohms.

2. Sheet textolite. It will make a comfortable handle.

3. A circle of copper of various diameters. The larger diameter should correspond to the inner diameter of the hole in the resistor. A smaller bar will serve as a soldering iron tip.

4. A spring corresponding to the outer diameter of the larger bar. Screw and washer.

Independent manufacture of a soldering iron at home involves the following operations:

• Drill a hole with a larger diameter at the end of the bar and cut the thread to the size of the selected screw. Cut a groove through the thickness of the spring wire. Cut off one ring from the spring, it will serve as a retainer.

• On the other hand, drill a hole in the end of a large-diameter bar equal to the outer dimension of the smaller bar. It will perform the function of a soldering iron tip. To ensure maximum accuracy, these operations are preferably performed on a lathe. If such is not at hand, you need to show all the skills and knowledge of plumbing.
• Next, we assemble the design, as shown in the photo.

• We insert the soldering iron rod up to the latch and fasten it with the screw and washer on the reverse side.

• From a sheet of PCB, make a convenient holder from two halves. To do this, cut out two identical parts. Drill through them through holes for the mounting bolts, and then in one of the pads drill holes for the nuts so that they are flush with the surface of the holder. In the inner side of the plates, it is necessary to make a selection for the resistor terminals and the supply wire.

• Connect the power wire to the terminals of the heating element.

• Finally assemble the soldering iron and conduct a test inclusion.

Another rather fascinating idea is the following version of a miniature soldering iron.

Method number 3. Ballpoint pen. rebirth

Sometimes in a film we see how, another agent from improvised materials creates a unique special tool that can pull him out of a seemingly hopeless situation. It turns out that you do not need to be a super hero in order to collect a unique, useful device, a soldering iron from improvised tools in everyday life that will later help in everyday life.

Using everything that is at hand you can design an electric soldering iron:

2. An element with a resistance of 10 ohms and a power of 0.5 watts.

3. Strip structural materials with electrical insulation properties.

4. Millimeter wire of copper.

5. A bar of steel with a diameter of 0.8 mm of medium hardness.

6. Supply wire.

All this is easy to find in any home workshop. Now a little effort to perform simple self-soldering iron assembly operations:

• Remove the paint from the resistance element, if it does not work out, it is advisable to connect it to a dimmable power source and heat it.
• Take the resistor on one side by cutting, remove the wire and make a hole in the end with a drill bit along the diameter of the copper wire. Important! In no case should the wire touch the resistor cup. Next, you need to countersink the hole with a thicker drill, as shown in the photo. In addition, make a cut on the resistor cup for the current lead

• From the steel wire, gently drive the ring in diameter equal to the cut on the cup.
• Then, following the example shown in the photo, cut a similar board from your PCB strip with your own hands.

• Now you need to assemble the soldering iron from the pen. This is a defined elementary operation.

• Install the sting in a prepared place. In order to avoid burning a resistor with copper wire, it is necessary to install a piece of fireproof material between the back wall and the sting as a safety element.

• The final step will be to connect the super appliance to a 12 V power supply.

You managed to assemble a miniature tool with your own hands. an electric soldering iron. The ideas of the following soldering irons are interesting.

Method number 4. High Power Pulse

This is a relatively simple electric soldering iron, but in order to assemble such a model it is necessary to have knowledge in the field of electrical engineering and reading skills in electrical circuits. It was the circuit below that served as the project for creating a powerful pulsed model.

This model has the advantage that the working element of the soldering iron is heated for a short time. Just 5 seconds after turning on the power, the solder can be melted.

As in the previously proposed options, the main condition is the possibility of manufacturing at home, with your own hands and from improvised materials. In our case, the basis of the future soldering iron will be a modernized switching power supply unit for a fluorescent lamp. In addition, we will consider other components for our device:

a ferrite filter made in the form of a ring from a pulse converter. On the primary winding there should be 100. 120 turns of copper wire, 0.5 mm thick, remove the previous secondary winding and independently make one turn of a copper bus with a diameter of not more than 3.5 mm.

a wire with a diameter of 1.5. 2 mm made of copper for the working element (sting).

The manufacture of a soldering iron consists in connecting the tip to the secondary winding and the leads of the ballast to the network winding of the transformer. That’s all the soldering iron is ready.

It will be useful information on how to make a stand for a soldering iron with a temperature regulator. Watch the video

If you need to quickly solder something, in addition to electric, you can use a gas soldering iron made from a conventional gas lighter, a piece of copper wire and electrical tape. A detailed description of the process below in the video.

To summarize as follows: if you do not trust the manufacturers of electrical equipment that have flooded the market with cheap low-quality tools, you do not want to waste money on that.

What can you do yourself, or is it just interesting for you to do something with your own hands, namely a soldering iron, having spent a little effort and time, you can easily do the thing “for yourself”.

For your specific goals and needs, easy to use and use, which will last you a long time and can be easily replaced with a new home-made quality tool.

A homemade soldering iron, thanks to the tips and recommendations applied here, will last you a long time and will allow you to be proud of your own skills and craftsmanship.

Now the question is "How to make a soldering iron at home" will no longer bother you!