As shown, DANGEROUS!

Posted at 8:37 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by toma

just what I was thinking! maybe bolted to the bench on a cement floor but not in my shop.

Posted at 8:56 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by chris

Wow, a can of molten solder over a fan cover held up by 4 long screws with no base. If it’s not a death trap it’s either a burn-your-skin-off trap or a burn-your-shop-down trap.

(but, now I’m imagining how to make a wave solder machine)

Posted at 9:13 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by spiffed

If that tipped over and hit you, you’d probably feel it. I thought it might while watching that video.

Interesting idea, though I agree with the above comments, if I were to use this I would have to have an enclosed box for it that was mounted somewhere. I am clumsy by nature and love my skin the way it is now.

Good post.

Posted at 9:14 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by mess_maker

Does “self-stripping wire” have a more common name?

Posted at 9:20 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by Pawn

heh cool, but getting hot solder dripped on you is no fun, so then imagine it being poured on you. but other than that, i have a bunch of fan covers like that one, so i may think about making one

Posted at 9:28 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by A_Blind_Man

Awesome idea, but I wouldn’t use it as an everyday tool. That’s a serious burn waiting to happen.

Posted at 9:47 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by Brett

put your face over it and breath in the lovely vapors, or just stay in the room long enough it might even flip the room upside down..

ya know they melt solder out of boards over seas The heavy metals and organic contaminants have been linked to a variety of health problems, ranging from cancer to nervous system damage.

but by all means make one of these it will be a fun weekend project

Posted at 9:52 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by stinkymonkey

The safety problems of this go way beyond the danger of fire/burns. as ’stinkymonkey’ said above, you have to watch out for the fumes. Most importantly, lead will begin to vaporize around 900 deg F (someone on here probably knows the exact temp) Soldering is mainly safe because most irons don’t go above this temp, but if you get it too hot, the lead molecules will become airborne and could poison you *way* faster than the relatively minor vapor issues with meled plastic / rubber. temperature control is important! beware!

Posted at 10:21 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by misha

I was wrong, solder is dangerous above 1300 deg F because that is the melting point of lead. lead-based solder is a mixture of lead and tin, which is why it melts lower. So best not to use lead solder in the first place, but if you do make sure it doesn’t get hotter than 1300f

Posted at 10:29 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by misha

As a firefighter, I’d like to thank the author for continued assurance of my job.

Posted at 10:34 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by Andrew Pollack

A real solder pot is probably not that much more expensive (googling, I find small ones like that for about $30 new) than sourcing the heater etc unless you already have that stuff lying around. And the base will be designed not to tip over.

For the ninnies that are worried about getting contaminated by evil spirits from the pot, these things are used in the real world for exactly the purposes mentioned above. I’d take minimal precautions about fumes from flux and plastics if I used one every day. These boil down to “have good ventilation and wash your hands” but don’t use that as industrial hygiene advice. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

Posted at 10:50 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by Brent

If you’re worried about lead fumes, just use lead free solder. Another issue is that solder will dissolve other metals like copper, I wonder how steel will resist.

Posted at 11:32 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by vic

I’m not going to try this but seriously, where do you find big chunks of solder like that?

Posted at 11:38 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by andrew

Mouser and Digikey both sell them. Stanley sells them in cases.
You can of course also just melt down a pile of wire solder, but the consistency can be off.

They’re literally called “solder bars”

Posted at 11:42 am on Jun 26th, 2009 by spiffed

i can think of a much better way to do that. ever hear of chip quik?

Posted at 12:55 pm on Jun 26th, 2009 by natrix

or make your own variant using the correct ratio of bismuth, indium and tin, melts at 57C.

works almost as well but the flux they include makes it flow better; more handy for removing multi-legged DILs from old pcbs.

Posted at 1:16 pm on Jun 26th, 2009 by conundrum

the idea behind this is a good idea … maybe insted of bashing the hacker and the hack why not use this as a springboard and make your own that would work better … kinda like a v#.# duh … hell id use something like that thanks guys

Posted at 3:28 pm on Jun 26th, 2009 by comonsence

I wonder if a $20 hot plate would get hot enough to melt solder. It not, maybe I could use a camping stove.

Posted at 5:23 pm on Jun 26th, 2009 by Matt

fuckin idiot has this shit on a notepad..

Posted at 10:41 pm on Jun 26th, 2009 by jim slipper

wow, all comments are about low security of device, and I must agree with all of you.
Pictures and video are taken in early stage of development and testing, and I have written these article more to show the principle of device.
To comfort all of you later the pot is mounted on heavy metal plate (about 6 kg, diameter cca 40cm) that just can not be flipped over, so spilling hot solder is impossible. Even it is possible to fill the plate with water to cool down the solder instantly if it is spilled, but I never used these and there is no need.

I will take some pictures of finished soldering pot and put them on my site when I catch some time.

Posted at 7:36 am on Jun 27th, 2009 by damir (author of article)

I work in the electrical distribution field and splice lead-sheathed cable (650 PILC) on a daily basis, so a much grander scale (50lb pot of 1500 degree glowing bright orange poured with ladles)).Water is probably the worst thing in the world to have around molten solder, as a molecule of water expands 30x when it comes in contact with molten solder due to the effects of thermal stress. If we drop a pot of solder into a manhole with water present, it’s over. Granted, the solder in the article probably gets nowhere near our temp, but it will probably still shoot up at you if hit with water. One can purchase asbestos plates on which to set solder, although this seems risky indoors.

Posted at 11:58 am on Jun 28th, 2009 by URD

tnx for info, I did not know that.
But probably temp. of my solder (cca 300C) is too low for thermal stress effect.
Once i try on purpose to spill a little solder in water plate, nothing terrible is happened.
Solder cools down in one second with sound of boiling water.

Posted at 2:20 pm on Jun 28th, 2009 by damir (author of article)

@stinkymonkey and @misha are right. Once lead (or anything) is liquid some starts vapourising into the air (and your lungs). I have been known to strip motherboards with a gas torch – outside, when there is a good wind blowing and I’m upwind of the work. But then I’m an old bloke and it’s not as much risk to my development as it is to a child.

Lead, mercury, cadmium, lithium &c are all common in electronics and all are toxic if injested, and easy to injest if you’re careless. They should not be underestimated.

I’ve seen people poison themselves by careless heating of metals, plastics, and solvents, and it ain’t pretty. There is no reason why we can’t have fun *and* play safe.

@urd – “One can purchase asbestos plates”

Asbestos? How about something cheap, effective, and non-toxic like bolting it to a *sand* tray?

Posted at 4:06 pm on Jun 28th, 2009 by Roly