Our reader [Damir] built a home made soldering pot. It can be used to solder and desolder components. To remove a through hole component, the solder side is placed in the bath. Then the component is removed with pliers. It is also possible to solder components, by placing the leads in the molten solder; similar to wave soldering. Another common use is tinning self stripping wire. The insulation of the wire is designed to burn off, allowing the strip and tin phase to be single step. This solder pot would be a nice addition to the hacker’s soldering station we had covered in 2008. For more pictures, check out the photo gallery. In the video embedded below, a transformer is easily removed from a modem.
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-291669304260217694&hl=en]
As shown, DANGEROUS!
The design is functionally effective; however a method of stability to ensure safety needs too be incorporated. Just looking at that I can see the accident where a large pot of molten solder has an unfortunate encounter with my balls.
I like this, the one thing I would do is use fire brick to encase it in and make it stable. Plus insulate the heat element from the table etc. I think I will do this soon.
just what I was thinking! maybe bolted to the bench on a cement floor but not in my shop.
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)
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.
Does “self-stripping wire” have a more common name?
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
Awesome idea, but I wouldn’t use it as an everyday tool. That’s a serious burn waiting to happen.
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
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!
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
As a firefighter, I’d like to thank the author for continued assurance of my job.
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.
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.
I’m not going to try this but seriously, where do you find big chunks of solder like that?
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”
i can think of a much better way to do that. ever hear of chip quik?
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.
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
I wonder if a $20 hot plate would get hot enough to melt solder. It not, maybe I could use a camping stove.
fuckin idiot has this shit on a notepad..
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.
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.
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.
@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?
Thanks for it.
Itz a very good idea to have something like this in Electronics lab. But one idea I would like to add here is, for this kind of Solder pot we have to control the temperature of the heater by a temperature control circuit. I thus like Steve to fit a circuit which controls the temp. of the heater..
If you make such arragements, kindly send it to my email id
to you have to use ceramic insulators or can you use something else
You can use anything you want, it is important that material is insulator and that it can withstand high temperature. What do you have on mind?