Making a fine tip for your solding iron for SMD soldering

Surface-mount soldering can require a very fine tip for your soldering iron. If you only have a small amount of soldering to do, then why spend the time and money buying a tip when you can make one?

I came up with this after reading http://www.instructables.com/id/An_easier_way_to_solder_magnet_wire_to_SMD_LEDs/

The cost is pretty much zero, and you can do it in under 5 minutes!

Step 1 Get some copper wire

The first thing you need is some copper wire. I have a reel of single-cored (i.e. solid) wire that has a conductor diameter of about 1.5mm - this is perfect. You might be able to use something a little thinner, but probably any thicker would be too difficult to bend.

Cut yourself about 10-15cm of wire. Use a knife to remove the insulation.

Comments

[didgitalpunk]

not bad but since you get it really tight, does it come really easly?

[ringram2]

Brilliant. And it works flawlessly. Yes I did redress with tip with a small file a few times but it did work great

[kramerr]

I've gone in the direction of this tutorial myself in the past. After an hour or less of soldering you're copper tip will corrode to a rough blunt end. There really is no magic substitute for a quality soldering iron.

[Krillian]

Well yes it will but then you just trim it off and go!

[MrZebra]

Yep, that's why I only recommend it if you have a very small amount of soldering to do - because it would be a waste of time buying a bit and waiting to have it shipped if you only have 5 LEDs to solder. Maybe I didn't make that clear in the text.

[drzcyy]

yes, i have tried this before too. copper will be "amalgamated" by the molten solder, it wont last long at all. use a piece of stainless steel or aluminium (similarly fashioned) instead. it will last much longer.

[handprints]

 what if I am just using it to make holes in plastic.?  Would that corrode the tip?

[MrZebra]

It will make a bit of a mess of the tip, yes - but the point of this is that the tip is only a little piece of wire, so if you mess it up you just throw it away and make a new one.

[Arbitror]

Good job, now I won't have to buy a precision tip!

[lieuwe]

why would you need this? unless you have one of those soldering guns, if you do it right you won't need this :-)

[arthujt]

.You may try using tinned hookup wire available at your local radio shack. It lasts a little longer . I got about a weeks use before I had to replace the end (3-4 small bourds. also helps if you take a small file and dress the end to a "hoof",which allows more control of solder flow..

[Whatnot]

I once long ago did the same as described here, it was not a good plan because once the iron got hot the expansion of the coper made it slide off leaving a iping hot piece of metal falling where I did not want it. So if you try this keep that in mind, find a way with a clip or some sort of spring action to keep it attached, winding is NOT enough to keep it on the tip in my experience.

[ste5442]

Good idea if you are stuck. Also, if you have the copper wire poking straight out (rather than at an angle like shown) it will not spin around the soldering iron when you touch the component ;-)

S.

PCBPolice

[junits15]

genius!!!!

[LiporXT]

the lidl cutter!!!

[MrZebra]

I've got several knives, and this is the BEST one by a long way!

[drbill]

Now this is a really GOOD idea. I've been wondering how I was going to solder small parts. Now all I need is a microscope/camera combo to be able to see what i'm soldering!

[Bongmaster]

how well does it work?

[MrZebra]

It works well enough to solder a few SMT LEDs or something. I wouldn't recommend it if you want to do ICs or if you have a lot to do, but if you just have a couple of small things then it saves you some expense.

[Bongmaster]

kool i'll prolly give it a go sometime :) i got a smal project needing that .