Comments on: How-To: The Hacker’s Soldering Station

By: R.B.Harris

R.B.Harris — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:49:10 +0000

Good project and well explained, now I feel moved to produce my own temperature controlled solder iron. By the way, the link for soldering oven, the http://www.ustr.net/smt/oven.htm shows a complete home made oven for surface mount components, but the AVR hex code is not published. Anyone have such code or any idea where to find it?

By: Brent

Brent — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:23:27 +0000

The “temperature controlled” soldering iron isn’t. It’s “adjustable power”. This approach will give you approximately no benefit with a 15-25W pencil iron. With a bigger iron it might be nice to be able to dial down to the 15-25W range, but just buying a cheap iron in that range is the simpler, cheaper solution. The dimmer hack has been around forever—it’s probably still in the ARRL Handbook—and is just lame.

Do yourselves a favor and get a high-output temperature controlled iron. You can work much faster with essentially no danger of overheating parts or lifting traces.

By: bluefoxx

bluefoxx — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:20:45 +0000

I use my cramped little desk, a cheap crappy 25W weller with a heavily worn chisel tip and a ATX PSU with a 120mm fan hooked up to the 5v rail to some decent enough effect, managing to do some surface mount work on things like modern graphics cards with caps ripped off. The only reason I use the fan at all is that I’ve suffered bronchitis and temporary loss of speech from inhaling too much of the flux fumes. As neat as this setup is, the most useful thing here for me is probably the hackish style temperature control on the iron itself.

By: kaye

kaye — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:50:42 +0000

Yeah, I think I’m going to build something like this. The fume hood would be VERY useful soldering near things that I have glued. Soldering iron + super glue = OH MY GOD MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably just use a computer case fan to extract, and build it all on an old desk (may as well make it nice).

By: Solder-Boy07

Solder-Boy07 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:55:55 +0000

Altough an interesting idea, however you have failed to note that in the removal of solder fumes you need to utilize a HEPA filter. The cheap pre-filter pad that you are using is not going to trap the micro particles that occure during the soldering process. If you want to do something like this just use a cheap desk fan, it’s pretty much the same thing. I would recommend a professional solder fume extractor that has a HEPA filter.

By: Cpt Obvious

Cpt Obvious — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:33:51 +0000

This thing is for pussies.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:24:42 +0000

I am new to the DIY/Modding scene, and I am looking for a way to get enough equipment to get started. I live in a densely populated area, and live in a small home. I think that I will be doing most of my soldering in the garage, and think this hack is a good place to start when looking for alittle extra ventilation. I think that a bigger bin would be helpful, and I think I will include a foot pedal that will control the fan speed, as to prevent the fan from cooling down the station. But other than that I am thankful that there are people out there that will post things like this to get others thinking.

THANK YOU for this hack, I hope to post some of my own in the future.

By: Seth

Seth — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:21:50 +0000

I have asthma. I’ve never had an asthmatic reaction to soldering but about half the times I’ve soldered for any length of time I’ve inhaled too much fumes and gotten sick. For me I usually get something like a cold except with more irritation in my sinuses, usually lasts about 2 weeks. It seems to happen only after inhaling fumes through my nose, not my mouth.

By the way, anyone with a radio shack butane iron, don’t use it for more than 30 minutes. I gave myself CO poisoning that way. The original manufacturer (who charges way less btw) has that warning on their packaging but for some reason radioshack doesn’t care when their customers die and neglected to pass on the warning.

By: Mrs. Trydle

Mrs. Trydle — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:03:22 +0000

Instead of commenting on the size of this hack, or the quality, should you not take into account, that some are not crafty enough to form in their mind how to create a soldering station. This is an idea, a suggestion, an example of how one can go about making one.
Of course inhaling anything unnatural is not safe.
As much as I solder, I just can’t stand the fumes in my eyes.
Cool idea.

By: Harold

Harold — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:45:07 +0000

I hardly even know what a soldering station is — okay, I’ve figured that it’s a station where you do your soldering — but I like the small size of this, which might even fit in my single apartment. Possibly. Anyway, thanks for posting this “hack”.

By: jello

jello — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:06:01 +0000

you could pick up an old desk with a computer hutch for free or cheap. cut a fan hole if you want. acrylic sheets to make a hood. you have a decent station with parts drawers, etc.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:05:49 +0000

That’s a dust-filter, no effect when it comes fumes. Solder unprotected daily for years and you will live to regret it. Call it paranoia, but there’s a reason why there are Health, Environment, and Safety rules.

The only symptom of lead-poisoning is the “disease” itself, not to mention the stuff they put in the flux.

By: ML1986

ML1986 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:23:11 +0000

Here’s another idea:
The fan could be mounted near the back of the workstation, if space allows.

By: pistolpete3521

pistolpete3521 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:31:24 +0000

I agree with # 7 and I would personally just melt the thing with the “spastic stab” portion of the directions. Also, I tend to solder wherever :\ but if it works, more power to you.

By: neorazz

neorazz — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:31:05 +0000

“Nothing like the smell of solder in the morning”….
or are you a prop 65 pansy !!!go hug a tree ya hippies