Hmm. Could you reverse the airflow and make a powered de-soldering iron like they have on those nice soldering stations?

Posted at 7:21 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Dan

@Dan,
you would probably have to build some kind of trap so your tube doesn’t get clogged, but I don’t see why not.

Posted at 7:23 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Caleb Kraft

Ummm, if you actually read the hack at the ‘more recent version’ link, you’d note his implimentation doesn’t work.

Posted at 7:25 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by budhaboy

Ohh, I like this.

Posted at 7:40 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Pouncer

These units work awesome all by themselves. No need to hack them. I have a vintage model (1980s) and it STILL WORKS. They take a bit of time to startup but are absolutely indespensible.

Not so good for removing surface mount items but the through hole stuff comes off super easy.

-=/ Daft Tech /=-

Posted at 7:42 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Daft Tech

How do you know the RadioShack iron wouldn’t work better?

Posted at 7:49 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Matt

Nice solution, but it worthless for anything larger than desoldering SO-8 from the board.
Hot air station based on that needs a bit more oomph to work, air blowing through a small tube will not heat enough with big air flow, I’d opt for some kind of heat exchanger.
On desoldering side I think it will do much better, provided the air after the iron is cooled and there will be trap for the solder. Soldering iron for the job should powerful so it wont cool.
Solder trap could be done with a coffee filter or something like that (Weller & Ersa have similas solutions).

Posted at 7:55 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by vec7or

@matt: probrably would. In fact, the ‘more recent version’ suggests as much by noting it’s got a lower wattage than the older one using the RS iron. I also think the RS hack is more elegant as the steel wool both captures heat AND restricts airflow. The ‘more recent’ dude’s implimentation attacked both issues independently.

Posted at 7:57 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by budhaboy

I like it. pretty elegant solution

Posted at 7:59 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Q

I actually bought a 12V compressor and a desoldering iron to do this hack a while ago… then I used the desoldering iron for it’s intended purpose and I ended up throwing a plug kit plus the compressor in the back of my truck in place of the spare tire… those cheap RS desoldering irons are actually pretty damn useful.

Posted at 8:03 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by twistedsymphony

Older than the internet.
I tried this about a year ago. It’s a neat idea, but it doesn’t work well enough to be practical. It takes a very long time to warm up (the pump must be off during this period or else it never heats up at all) and when it finally does, its a really clumsy and difficult tool to use.

Posted at 8:50 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by rd

Also, note that connecting the tube directly to the iron is a bad idea. It’s better to poke a hole in the back of the silicone bulb and insert the tube into that so that it is insulated from the heat.

Posted at 8:55 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by rd

I tried this about a year ago. After several days of failing I gave up. The iron just does not get hot enough to do any good.

Posted at 9:07 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by A2E

I have come to comment and I saw all people saying almost the same I come to say.
There’s no way that works.
it’s like trying to make some water heather, using one feet of cooper pipe and a Bunsen lighter.

Posted at 9:39 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Stendall

I live in the UK, and cannot find anywhere that sells these type of irons cheaply. That said, there is an instructable on turning a hot-air gun into a hot-air solder station which seem preferable to me. Now, if I can just find a large copper pipe corner…

Posted at 9:56 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by CH

doesn’t work!
i tried it as well, with increased air flow, with reduced air flow, smaller tip, better heat exchanger, a modification, where the air gets blown through the iron -still useless
at least i now know more than i used to:
if you want to heat up air to the temperature of a soldering iron and don’t have an infinite amount of time, what you need is not a soldering iron, but something that is hotter than a soldering iron- basic physics, duh! every heat exchanger is built that way.
so what i learned is to trust my own knowledge, even if some bright bulb tells me about his great awesome hack, and forgets to mention the tiny detail, that it doesn’t work.
my radio-shack version got disassembled, my new version at least works for welding soft-PE ;)

Posted at 10:14 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

I tried this over the summer. I don’t know if it’s the greatest thing for actual soldering but it is a pretty useful tool. I was able to desolder some SMD resistors and capacitors with it and solder them back on but it took a ridiculously long time to get anything hot enough to melt solder. However, it works really well with heat-shrink tubing, almost the perfect heat. It isn’t so hot as to burn the tubing quickly but it shrinks it very well. It can also be used to melt plastic and wire insulation. I added a ton of steel wool in the tip of the thing, jammed it in until I couldn’t fit any more and it still has good airflow. Steel wool seems to be a good heat exchanging material for this iron.

Posted at 10:19 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by CalcProgrammer1

I built this a few years back and it’s really just junk. Spend a bit over $100 and get a PID controlled hot air gun clone. you will not regret it.

Posted at 11:31 am on Oct 23rd, 2009 by reza

The people who comment on this site are the biggest bunch of crybabies on the internet.

Posted at 12:23 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Bill

oh bill, if something is posted as a great hack and five people who built it already think it’s junk, what should they do?
a) voice their opinion
or
b) stay quiet and let others find out for themselves

i admit, option b) reduces the crybabyness-factor of this site. but info-tainment-amusement over learning? that’s only preferable for theoretical hackers. you know, the kind who read this and think “wow, cool all the stuff that’s out there. some day i might build something like that.”

Posted at 1:04 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

@tantris,
Wouldn’t it also be possible for them to state that they’ve done it and explain that it didn’t work out in a positive manner? I know I appreciate knowing the pitfalls before I get started. But yeah, no need to bash the project.

Posted at 1:17 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Caleb Kraft

@Caleb
agreed. the tone isn’t always the nicest here.
but sometimes rude and irritated is hard to distinguish. and i admit, i got irritated: the original writeup goes through the steps, without mentioning that it kind of doesn’t work that well. Paddy’s blog ( mentioned as “more recent version” above) is much better: go through the steps and report whether that works or not.
unfortunately, hackaday just linked to it as “more recent version” and forgot to mention, that’ it doesn’t work.
i wouldn’t bash the project as a whole. (i am looking for curling irons and broken toasters right now..) but there are write ups that are bad and misleading, and good ones that are open to (constructive) criticism.

Posted at 1:48 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by tantris

This toll work great as desoldering tool but as hot air desoldering it just newer work, you will overheat and burn all components before you desolder them with this, trust me I tried to do this many times before buying hot air station

Posted at 2:18 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by therian

boys, heat guns are $20. easier to set up, not as precision true, but still simpler than this.

Posted at 2:45 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by vikki

Yep, made one a couple years ago according to the earlier Hackaday post, didn’t work terribly well. Some tricks to make it work:
- Get a high-watt desolderer.
- Include a footswitch to control the pump.
- Severely restrict air flow.
- That steel wool trick looks reasonable.
I don’t use it for that purpose anymore; it still desolders, and I got a real SMD rework station for real work; it’s worth it.

Posted at 3:52 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by PocketBrain

I tried this exact same setup. It was okay, but painfully slow, and ineffective on anything larger than small SMD components. Needs more airflow and heat.

Posted at 3:54 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by capissen

Damn good find.

Posted at 5:52 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by nope

Tried it back in 07 and it didn’t work, I didn’t try too hard honestly. A hot air paint stripper or a hot plate works with less effort.

I would like to see more DIY hot air irons, perhaps with temp control. You can buy a spool of nichrome wire from ebay or from Omega.com

Posted at 10:33 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by coo no L blades

I also tried this one out, over the summer, but it didnt work all that well. I tried changing it a bit, after the initial not working, by adding a thin brass pipe down the center of the soldering iron, to hold more steel wool, and adding a finer tip taken from a steel mechanical pencil, it still didnt work.

Posted at 11:11 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Kevin

I saw a instructable where a guy put some desoldering braid inside the head of the thing so that it would help transfer heat to the air as it passes through.

Posted at 4:20 am on Oct 24th, 2009 by epicelite

what the fuck is the point of posting stuff like this when it doesnt even work???? hell,even the author of the “more recent version” states that point blank.

and now,back to your regularly scheduled aurdino commercials.

Posted at 7:15 pm on Oct 24th, 2009 by bobob

To Bobob

Up top! *high five gesture*

Posted at 7:23 pm on Oct 24th, 2009 by cooblades

LOL; from the blog spot link “It didn’t work! At least not on the solder on the circuit board.” I hope you work from home Stuart, in my part of the world you get a large ration of shit when you get to the shop.

Posted at 1:37 am on Oct 26th, 2009 by Doug