INSANELY HOT DIY Hot Air Soldering iron @ 15 Volts DC and 3.5 amps...PART II

359 degrees centigrade and with room for more ;) This is the permanent version to my earlier prototype. I have added adjustable nozzles, used a smaller heater element and of all things, butchered a scooter handle to hold it all together. If you look at this and my other instructable, you are surely able to make your own. Big improvement with this final model is that the heating element is thermally isolated from the main housing...a big change from the standard shop brought soldering irons. This isolation of heat allowed me to reach insane temperatures without cooking my hand. Here is the link click here to the prototype that started this off....

anyways...i have stated my experiences and since making the front page of MAKE, some people have their noses out of joint and have become quiet the TROLL...this is it for me and I merely posted my experience and did not baffle anyone with theoretical tripe...You make your own mind up....I am not into defending myself against TROLLS who think they know better than anyone else...You all have good weekend, and if I create another working project, remind me to proclaim that the world is not flat and give my accusers a bundle of stones

Step 1: To start, you need one of these...

Hot air gun from the dump...or anywhere you can get your hands on one. Does not need to work. The down side is that you need to get one that has cylindrical ceramic tubing in the heater department - see later stuff for more of what I mean. The metal tube housing and all attached bitz such as motor is what you will need if you follow this instructable.

Comments

[JacFlasche]

I guess this would be ok if you have a heat gun with a ceramic encapsulated element that has a broken handle or something, but before you spend any time or effort, realize that you can buy a hot air rework station for about a hundred dollars new. It will have all kinds of safety features that this does not, and temp and air flow controls, digital displays etc. Actually my ten year old Steinel heat gun will do things that this cannot and you can pick up a nice used one for 30 on ebay or even less if you are patient. This is not even close to insanely hot. My old Steinel still goes to 820 C which is fairly standard and not at all insane, and has infinitely adjustable heat and air (within parameters) I got it for about $50 ten years ago. By the way, some of the people you are in some kind of flame thing with are right, you should take the word of professionals with twenty years experience who are trying to clue you. Here is a link to a video of a professional hot air rework station being built. It has both an iron and hot air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quGs3q9nsA8

[hakam66]

make power supply for Hot Air Gun

[The nerdling]

i know where to get a hot air jet

[The Lightning Stalker]

Where did this ceramic tube come from?

[beatobe]

You can use a high watt resistor, some resistor is tube and its ceramic

[OzzyRoo]

innards of a paintsripper heat gun, I understand not all come with the cylinders.

[beatobe]

where i can find a ceramic tube like that???

[DIY Dave]

Couldn't you just use a heat gun?

[karossii]

Just thought I would leave a comment here.. Ozzy, your instructable is a good one, and you've done a wonderful job in making this hot air soldering/de-soldering gun. It is an ingenious project.

However, those whom you are calling Trolls (and who are doing nothing in the realm of trolling) are actually correct. These devices have been around for ages... you have not invented anything new here. I know you don't necessarily claim to have done so...however I have to point out that some of us have had a lot of experience using devices like this, and you are jumping to some wrong conclusions.

This doesn't mean you did a bad job in making your device, or that it is worthless, etc.; it only means that this device has some specific uses in which it excels, and normal everyday soldering is no one of them. Yes it can do that job, but not as good as the traditional metal tipped soldering irons.

A google search can easily reveal the commercially available devices like this, and some online research will equally readily reveal the fact that they are not the best thing for traditional soldering.

That doesn't mean it cannot be used for such, only that it is not as good as a normal soldering iron.

[targon]

 It used to solder SMD components and BGA chips and not intended for hole through technology.

[gargoyle169]

When combined with a DIY reflow (toaster) oven, this tool can assemble PCB's with a .4 mm pitch, I would not go any smaller do to the constraint of temperature control being rather spotty in a DIY like this. (Somebody who has been working fine pitch since 1980 for gov/mil/ and now private sector.)

[emuman4evr]

I dont think 359 degrees is hot enough to melt solder.

[ReCreate]

400 degrees Fahrenheit is enough to melt solder 359 degrees Celsius is 678 degrees Fahrenheit that's about 200 degrees over solder's melting temperature

[clark]

thats 359 degrees Celsius.

[lasermaster3531]

 google it.

[emergencydpt.com]

Amazing, a troll tracked you down to post a negative comment on your rather excellent instructable. I tell, you a kid can't cut up his scooter and make a heat gun without someone cutting him down. Don't worry about it. I think you did an excellent job. Once you get to the top of a hill, people will always throw rocks at you. That's how you know you are going in the right direction!

[rob_fed]

This is great! I changed out my handle bars on a cheap Chinese electric scooter and I have the exact piece you used :) I have been using it as a short cheater or leverage bar on my ratchet driver. Now I have a new inspiration! Thanks!

[Plasmana]

I really want to try build one of those...

[killerjackalope]

This is a really well made project, it's impressive both in quality and it seems to work...

Sad about the trolls, gotta say they'll take anything you give them, I liked the ones where they angrily pointed out your point then agreed, just to tell you you're still wrong. Some people are smart, some people are dumb, some cockroaches are stupid and then there are trolls...

[madison_ultralight]

I have a professionally built one-of-these that uses helium as the mover and it'll reach air temperatures of 2000 degrees. It is the only thing I'll use to solder stainless steel parts. This could have saved me $400.

[sedition]

You made Make, congrats!

[OzzyRoo]

thanks mate...this is just an idea that became reality and works for me...despite the opinions of others who have haven't tried it out in the real world ;)

[ac-dc]

Oh but they have tried it in the real world. There are real, professional grade, highly accurate temp and flow volume + shape hot air rework stations. Nobody uses them for the tasks you suggest because they are inferior to any decent soldering iron. Hot air is suitable for reflowing solder paste, one-off soldering down of BGA chips, desoldering of these and multi-pinned through hole parts. It is a terrible choice for general soldering. Professionals know this as does the entire world. As already written, this is a neat project and can be handy for some of the aforementioned things if you get the temp distance and timing right so it doesn't damage anything, but there are real issues using this kind of tool where it is not warranted. In some cases a semi or fully populated board represents a lot of work, time, and cost. Ruining it through an experimental and know improper soldering technique needs no testing today, as soldering is not a new skill to man and industries spend millions if not billions of dollars to find the best methods. My comments may seem negative to you but they can save a few people a lot of problems by recognizing when this is and when this is not a good tool for the job.

[airwelldriller]

As a bench jeweler, sometimes I had to weld links on light chains. I used a "Little Torch" oxy/acy rig. It was easy to accidentally melt work. If a light-chain link melted, it appeared the surface tension of the puddled gold could/would/did suck the free end of the chain right into the puddle -- a 12" chain became a 1/8th inch blob in half a heart beat. When soldering on light chains or in tight corners, I was taught to localize the heat by soldering thru the holes in a double-edged razor blade. The blade was clamped in a "third hand". Could electronic components be similarly protected when hot-air soldering?

[OzzyRoo]

that is my experience, despite trolls floating empty theories to the contrary ;)

[dpocius]

Where I used to work (semiconductor R&D fab, long time ago) we had a similar device made of nichrome wire and quartz tubing. The wire was coiled in a 1/8" or so coil, then wound into a helix which was then stuffed into a 1/2" - 3/4" ID quartz tube. The end result looked like an old toaster heater element stuffed into a glass tube (Don't throw away that old toaster!). A handle was attached, and the back end was plumbed to a dry purified nitrogen source through rubber tubing and a needle valve to regulate the flow. The nichrome heating element was connected to a 120VAC variable autotransformer to control power. With a bit of fiddling, the gadget could produce a jet of 1000 C N2, useful for all sorts of things, like removing brazed-on caps on hermetically-sealed ICs. Ours was homemade, but I seem to recall GTE Sylvania made one also.

[OzzyRoo]

sounds like my beast ;)...maybe mine wasn't a world first after all...;P

[The Lightning Stalker]

How would you keep the nuts and bolts from loosening up from the thermal expansion/contraction?

[OzzyRoo]

there is none

[meritsetgo]

this fyi for those who wonder why we would need such a thing. It is great for removing paint, caulk, adhesives, etc from surfaces without using chemical strippers. You could also use it to kill weeds (poison ivy anyone?) in your yard (patio, driveway, etc) without using chemicals. If you ever need to strip paint from furniture or any wood surface that you want to restore this is a great alternative. This tool also helps you collect salvageable electronic parts by quickly desoldering them from pcb boards (i know, it is redundant to say "boards").Turn the board upside down and a quick blast of hot air will melt the solder freeing the parts before the solder has a chance to re-harden but before you damage the parts themselves from the high heat. Finally it is a great tool for soldering those pesky plumbing copper fittings in tight areas where using an open flame torch might risk a fire.

[OzzyRoo]

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...you guessed it, ova my dummy spit from the trolls earlier :) BIG BIG THANKYOU for saying it for wot it is... "Turn the board upside down and a quick blast of hot air will melt the solder freeing the parts before the solder has a chance to re-harden but before you damage the parts themselves from the high heat"

[OzzyRoo]

thinks I betta be polite and read the comments and reply after several months absence

[dfowler7437]

This is a great project, well done.

I bought a heat embossing tool for about $20 that will do a simular job. Here is a link describing a SMT soldering process using one of these heat guns. There is a video of a board being soldered there as well. SMT Tools

[DrStoooopid]

What's the application for this? Please excuse my ignorance. What's a hot air soldiering iron for?

[OzzyRoo]

making coffee

[DrStoooopid]

no I'm serious....what is a hot air soldiering iron used for? I know what a soldiering iron is used for, but what benefit does the air give you? Why would you use it over a regular one?

[ac-dc]

A hot air gun, without modifications mentioned, is good for heat shrink tubing. A hot air soldering station is used when a part has multiple joints that need melted simultaneously for removal (repair work or prototypes, for example), or when the discrete part has leads/contacts/etc that are not accessible with a soldering iron.

This hot air technique is not a substitute for normal soldering of leaded or surface mount parts. That is true even if it were a controlled temp _{which this is not. This hot air hack could be a useful addition to your soldering tool set, but never a replacement for a good soldering iron when one could be used instead.}

[OzzyRoo]

correction....hot air technique by my experience is far better than traditional methods...more precise as outlined in my diy article and others by other geniuses...lmfao...replying to my messages too...quiet the TROLL

[The Lightning Stalker]

SMT work and heat shrink tubing mostly.

[OzzyRoo]

plus other uses open to your imagination