It started when [Mitxela] was faced with about a hundred incorrectly-placed 0603 parts. Given that he already owned two TS101 soldering irons, a 3D printer, and knows how to use FreeCAD (he had just finished designing a custom TS101 holder) it didn’t take long to create cost-effective DIY soldering tweezers.
The result works great! The TS101 irons are a friction-fit and the hinge (designed using the that-looks-about-right method) worked out just fine on the first try. Considering two TS101 irons are still cheaper than any soldering tweezer he could find, and one can simply undock the TS101s as needed, we call this a solid win.
One feature we really like is being able to precisely adjust the depth of each iron relative to each other, so that the tips can be made to line up perfectly. A small screw and nut at the bottom end of each holder takes care of that. It’s a small but very thoughtful design feature.
Want to give it a try? The FreeCAD design file (and .stl model) is available from [Mitxela]’s project page. Just head to the bottom to find the links.
We’ve seen DIY soldering tweezers using USB soldering irons from eBay but the TS101 has a form factor that seems like a particularly good fit.
It probably has better temperature regulation than Sequre HT140. That one seems to regulate purely based on heater resistance, which isn’t particularly accurate.
I don’t know the HT140, but resistance is a perfectly fine method, for measuring temperature. It’s done on some medical ventilators.
It’s not the method that’s the issue, it’s what they’re measuring. They’re measuring the heater, not the tip.
Does it matter in practice? People seem to like it on Amazon, and it has the advantage of using the C210 tip, which I kind of get the impression might be the new One Tip To Rule Them All, like the T18 was a long time ago.
The C210 has a thermocouple near the tip which allows good temperature regulation. But by only checking the heater resistance the HT140 is not taking advantage of this. The heater is much larger so it doesn’t really react to the tip cooling down when you are trying to solder something, and with the small thermal capacity of C210 tips you need to run it very hot to compensate.
I don’t really know why they haven’t just used the thermocouple. But at least my unit only has two wires to the tip connectors.
Because they arent using resistance? You only need two wires to measure thermocouple on Hakko/JBC cartridges because heater is in series with thermocouple.
Huh.. well maybe! I didn’t realize it could work that way.
Maybe I should try if it works better with different tips.
Got an old Weller LR21 iron sitting around? They make 2.5mm and 3.8mm gapped chisel tips (T0054103999, T0054104099) for 0805 and 1206 desoldering. Here’s hoping they’ll work, before I’ll get another USB iron.
What are these used for?
Desoldering and removing 2 pin surface mount components from printed circuit boards e.g. the 0603 parts mentioned in the article
Clever, thanks for sharing. Hopefully someone does a Pinecil version soon :-)