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Homemade high temperature thermostat. Simple do-it-yourself electronic thermostat circuits. General concept of temperature controllers

A soldering iron is an empty phrase for many, but for most men it is an indispensable tool in everyday life. And it doesn’t even matter if you are repairing electronics, or just an inquisitive mind does not give rest to your hands. In this article we will talk about creating a soldering iron with your own hands from improvised materials. But we’ll make a reservation right away that it’s easier to buy, it will be more reliable and safer for your health.

1 ) How to make a soldering iron with your own hands - a schematic diagram of a soldering iron

As you can see, the soldering iron is very simple in terms of design and everything you need to assemble it yourself at home is quite found in every home.

How to make a soldering iron with your own hands - what you need

Our current model soldering iron will run on a 12-14 volt battery. This is much safer than using 220 volts in a homemade soldering iron.

  • Li-ion rechargeable battery (quite suitable from a power tool or an old laptop).
  • A piece of single-core copper wire with a diameter of about two millimeters and a length of five to six centimeters. We will need it to wind the spiral.
  • Heat-resistant fiberglass tubes with different diameters of 3.8 and 1 mm to isolate the heating element from the metal casing (you can take it from an electric kettle).
  • Nichrome wire with a diameter of 0.3 mm (you can take it from an old hair dryer). The length of the wire will be selected empirically, depending on the power of the soldering iron and battery.
  • A segment of a telescopic antenna from a radio receiver with a diameter of 4 millimeters and a length of 3 centimeters.
  • A piece of copper single-core wire for a sting, with a diameter of 3.8 mm.
  • Wire for connecting power to the soldering iron.
  • Wooden or plastic tube for the handle.


How to make a soldering iron with your own hands - assembly

  • To begin with, we will manufacture the heating element.
    We wind a nichrome thread on a piece of wire and, by selecting the length of the spiral, we will achieve heating in the aisles of 300 - 450 degrees Celsius.


  • Let's take the same piece of single-core copper wire and put a heat-resistant tube on it.
    We wind the segment of the spiral selected by us on the tube.


  • We put thinner tubes on the ends of the spiral and place the whole structure inside another, thicker tube. Let's take out copper wire(he fulfilled his role and we no longer need it).


  • Everything, the heating element is ready. Now it remains to insert it inside copper tube from the antenna and place our sting in it. We fix the sting in the tube with a self-tapping screw.


  • Our soldering iron is almost ready. It remains to attach the power wire to the ends of the spiral, insert the entire structure into the handle and connect it to the power source.

Important: between the handle and the antenna tube, you need to place some non-combustible material to avoid a fire. ZMP for this purpose is quite suitable.


Let's summarize all of the above. To create a soldering iron, you do not need any special knowledge and expensive components. But such homemade products should be done only when you need to solder something, but there is simply no soldering iron at hand. And there is simply no time for shopping trips with the aim of acquiring it. In all other cases, it is easier to buy it, especially since it does not cost a lot of money. But in terms of safety, the factory one is much more reliable than any kind of homemade products.

A soldering iron is an attribute of any radio amateur, from a professional to those who have just started. Today on sale you can find soldering irons or even soldering stations of any size. But they all have one big minus - they are quite rough and they have a large distance from the end of the sting to the edge of the handle. Such dimensions are convenient when soldering large parts, but when working with small elements, such devices are inconvenient, due to the fact that they are very heavy. position. Having looked through the schemes of miniature soldering irons on the Internet, I found that many of them have some design flaws: a non-replaceable tip, lack of grounding, and much more. So I decided to try to create more modernized“assistant” for a beginner radio amateur based on several instructions. The features of our future soldering iron include: a small distance from the end of the tip to the edge of the handle (~ 30–40 mm), handle diameter (~ 15 mm), the ability to replace the tip and heating elements (reserve), ease of manufacture, which does not require any special knowledge.

Homemade miniature low-voltage soldering iron - drawing

As a handle, an ordinary brush was used, which was preliminarily polished and lacquered.
For a good fastening of the wires in the handle, I used such a homemade knot: I made a thread in a hollow rivet and glued it into the handle. Here you can easily fix the cable using the locking screw.
Then I moved on to the manufacture of mounts for the heat shield. They were also made from hollow rivets, but with a smaller diameter. M1.6 thread was created in them and glued into the handle holes.

The heating element was taken from an ordinary inexpensive Chinese soldering iron, after some manipulations with the dimensions, it fit perfectly with our device.

This element has a power of 7 watts and a length of 6.5 mm. Power is supplied by an adjustable power supply unit - from 0 ... 18 Volts. At the same time, the heating temperature can reach 280 degrees.
In the back of the pen was glued a regular spring, which can be borrowed from a regular ballpoint pen. This part is necessary to protect the power cable from breaking.
The ground and power wire is threaded in cambric. A socket for grounding is pressed into the main hole of the plug, which is designed for the cable, and the power cables are led out through an additional hole.
As you can see in the picture, the resulting home-made miniature low-voltage soldering iron in its dimensions barely casts from an ordinary fountain pen.

A soldering iron is an indispensable device for radio amateurs and home craftsmen. Often there is a need to solder away from a 220 V electrical outlet and use, for example, a 12-volt car battery to connect. When soldering subminiature devices, mini soldering irons with special characteristics are needed. In this regard, many are wondering how to make a soldering iron with their own hands, getting a convenient device and saving money at the same time.

Soldering iron for SMD

SMD devices are microcircuits in mobile phones, laptops or tablets. The installation of circuit elements is carried out on a site with contacts, where there is a thermal barrier to prevent the spread of heat along the tracks.

Soldering iron requirements for SMD:

  1. Power should not be more than 10 W;
  2. The temperature of the soldering iron should not be more than that which the microcircuit element can withstand;
  3. If the tip is too cold, then a long soldering procedure can worsen the part due to the long heat exposure time;
  4. It is necessary to achieve a temperature of the tip about 40 ° C higher than the temperature at which the solder melts. Here the main obstacle is the inertia of the soldering iron.

Sting material

The best tip is nickel-plated copper, with additives. This is the most expensive material and it is problematic to find it for making a soldering iron with your own hands.

A tip made of bronze or brass is not suitable for soldering SMD boards, because it has a high thermal inertia.

A copper sting also has disadvantages: a short service life due to burning, but it can simply be changed. But copper has a high thermal conductivity, and better material for work with miniature boards no.

You can make a mini soldering iron with your own hands from the MLT-0.5 resistor. Its tube is thin enough and will not interfere with heating the sting.

What needs to be prepared:

  • case from simple ballpoint pen;
  • MLT-0.5 with a resistance of 5 to 10 ohms;
  • a piece of textolite 1-3 cm;
  • steel wire 0.8 mm;
  • copper wire 1 mm.

Manufacturing steps

  1. Strip the resistor from paint with a sharp object. If it is cleaned poorly, connect to a power source for warming up;

  1. Cut off the lead from one end of the resistor and drill a hole into which a piece of copper wire is inserted - the future soldering iron tip. Straighten the second conclusion and leave it, it will serve as one current conductor;

Important! The sting should enter the hole in the ceramic body, but not touch the walls of the side metal cup. To do this, the hole in the cup should be slightly wider than in the body. By the way, a case with holes exists only for domestic resistors.

  1. On the surface of the same metal cup, a cut is made for laying the second conductor;
  2. The second conductor is made of steel wire, which is bent so that an open ring is formed in the middle, which fits tightly into the cut made;

  1. In the upper part of the body of a ballpoint pen or some other suitable hollow plastic rod, a board made of double-sided textolite should be installed, which is given the necessary shape;
  2. A steel wire ring is put on the cup and soldered to ensure good contact. This negative conductor still serves as a fastening element;
  3. Conductors are soldered to the upper part of the board made of textolite on both sides, and conductors are threaded to the lower part, which are threaded into a plastic tube (handle body);
  4. Before you put the sting, a tiny piece of mica must be placed inside so that the copper does not come into contact with the resistor cup located at the other end. The sting can be replaced periodically.

For the supply wire, it is good to take MGTF. Its insulation withstands accidental contact with the heating element. Soldering with such a home-made tool is performed with ordinary solder and flux. A homemade soldering iron is powered by a PSU. It is necessary to get 7-10 V at the output, depending on the resistance of the resistor. It's a good idea to use a PSU where you can adjust the voltage.

Resistor soldering iron

The wire resistor is an existing nichrome heater. It is able to heat up to 250°C when the power is dissipated into the surrounding space. If you install a tip that will remove heat, the resistor can withstand a double power overload for a long time. The tip will heat up to 300°C. You can also increase the heating by creating a threefold overload, but then the home-made soldering iron must be periodically (after 1.5 hours) turned off.

When calculating the soldering iron, the resistance and power of the resistor are taken into account. The resistor must be taken of the PEV type, old, but still being produced. They are covered with vitreous enamel, withstand repeated overheating, they can only darken.

Important! Resistors of type C5-35V, which cannot be used, are painted on all sides. The paint is not completely removed. When a device made from them is heated, the paint melts, the sting can stick forever, without the possibility of replacement.

From the PEV-10 resistor, you can design a soldering iron with a power of 30-40 watts. At the same time, if powered from a 12-volt source, the resistance should be approximately 5 ohms. If the device will operate from a 220 V network, it is necessary to use PEV-20 with a significantly higher resistance. The design of such a soldering iron is similar in principle, but differs in execution.

How to make a mini soldering iron from a resistor powered by a 12-volt voltage source can be seen in the example:

  1. It is necessary to prepare the design of the sting so that it is closely inserted into the ceramic case. A copper rod is taken with a diameter approximately corresponding to the size of the hole in the case, and drilled from two sides: under the sting, which will be a slightly smaller rod, and under the bolt for fasteners. In both holes it is necessary to cut the thread, as well as on the surface of the sting;

  1. A cut is made on a larger rod, where a ring is put on to fix the entire structure;
  2. Now you need to solder the electrical cord to the terminals of the resistor and make a convenient handle from insulating material. To protect and strengthen the copper terminals of the resistor, metal clips can be attached to them from above.

Important! The operating current of the manufactured mini soldering iron should not be higher than 1 A.

These are the two most simple designs soldering iron. Experienced home craftsmen can complicate them without using a resistor, but by making a heating element on their own.

Before you make a soldering iron with your own hands, it is recommended to decide on its model. This tool can be used for car radiator, wire soldering, network connector repair. To perform the above work, a home-made soldering iron with a power of 25-40 watts is made.

Before starting work on the manufacture of a homemade soldering iron, you should decide on its subsequent purpose.

Design features

To make an electric tool, you will need copper and nichrome wire, foil, tin tube, electric cord, tweezers, pliers, electrolyte. To power the electric soldering iron, an ordinary electrical network with a converter and an NDR-110K transformer is used. The last unit can be dismantled from a tube TV.

A miniature soldering iron is made from copper wire. One end of the segment is sharpened in the form of a dihedral angle with a radius of 40 degrees. The edges of the corner will need to be tinned. The next step is to prepare the electrically insulating mass.

Flour dough is mixed with liquid glass and talc. The resulting mixture is applied to a cylindrical surface. To do this, you can use a plate or tweezers.

The tool is pre-treated with a dry composition of talc. A tube of copper foil is put on the sting. Its length should be 30 mm. The resulting design is the basis for the soldering iron.

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Additional work

An electrically insulating mass is smeared on the tube. Then it is dried at a temperature of 100-150 degrees. The base is wrapped with a heating nichrome element. Experts recommend tightly fitting the base.

The lead ends of the wire are left straight. Then the base is re-wound. The mass is dried over the fire. The long end of the wire is wrapped back, pressing it against the tube. A third layer of insulating mortar is then applied, which requires re-drying.

If the heating element is ready, then the ends of the wire are covered with an electrical insulating solution. To assemble a mini soldering iron with your own hands, you will need to thread the cord in heat-resistant insulation. If the ends of the nichrome electric heater are screwed to the bare wires, then the tool is re-coated and dried. Bare wires are insulated. The soldering iron can be built into a protective cover made of tin.

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impulse device

To perform electronic work, you will need to make a light and compact soldering iron. Such a tool differs in the principle of operation of the sting heater. In standard soldering irons, a nichrome spiral is used. It is a heating element that transfers heat to the sting.

Experts recommend making your own soldering iron, which heats up in 5 seconds. This time is necessary for him to acquire the ability to melt tin. As its basis, a pulsed battery is used.

The principle of operation of the pulse homemade tool is to short circuit the second winding of the transformer.

The last device is presented in the form of a copper bus. For its manufacture, you can use two cores (1.7 mm each). The winding consists of one turn.

The sting is made of nickel or copper wire, which is then connected to the second winding of the transformer. The last device is presented in the form of a ferrite ring. It can be dismantled from the pulse converter. Otherwise, rings from electronic transformer blocks are used.

Rings can have different parameters. In the network winding, there are 100-200 turns of wire with a cross section of 0.5 mm. The winding must be evenly stretched over the entire ring. A ballast deviation of 30% is allowed. The resulting device is lightweight and does not take up much space. Experts recommend making pulse soldering irons from compact ballasts from LDS.