POOR MANS SOLDER POT

I work with magnet wire. The stuff is cheep, flexable and

dosent short out when touching surrounding circuits.

BUT tinning the ends is quite a pain. If you have the solder

iron at 900 it tins but you cant solder ics at that temperature.

So I made this solder pot to dip the ends into to tin.

I use the plain jane radio shack de-solder unit.

I cut off the pump about an inch from the base.

Then I put a screw into the tube to seal it. I thought

solder is thick and did not fit my first try very tightly.

Only to have solder pour over my bench through the screw

that was suppose to make a tight seal.

Step 1: Add Insulation

My first solder pot worked well but as the garage

is not heated and the temperature became cooler.

The solder was not hot enough to take off the paint

on some of my wires. I know the heat dissapated

from the case of the unit. So I made a cover and

stuffed it with that 'pink attic insulation'. Fiberglass

only no paper !

I made a 'coat hanger' stand for support.

The unit works well. Just dip straight down only. This action

removes the paint. If you swirl then the paint just gets coated

and not removed. After 30+ wires you just scrape off the

ash and add an inch of solder.

GEEE A 15 DOLLAR SOLDER POT that dosent use

2 pounds of solder and half an hour to warm up !!!!!

Step 2: Magnet Wire

Here is the beauty of magnet wire. Many times I don't make a pc board.

Sometimes I solder directly to ic legs after I epoxy the ic

to whatever i'm making.

Step 3: Cutting Magnet Wire

I got so frustrated cutting one piece and dipping and cutting

one piece and dipping.....

I tried a credit card and cut the loops with a razor but

it just made small loops that stuck on everything. Now

with the razor blades the ends are straight. I dip the whole

pack into the solder trying to get the ends loose and not

soldered together. But no big deal... I pull one wire at

a time from the tape and if they are soldered I just

tap the end with my soldering iron ( I'm soldering anyway)

and they spring loose. The only secret is having flat

tweezers. I found a set of very nice ones called VETUS

and the flat one is VETU esd-10. I think you get 6 types.