How To Make A Soldering Iron More Powerful

Cordless soldering irons are great for precision work.

How to make a soldering iron more powerful. You also need to take wattage into account. You apply the solder paste to the joint connect the two parts then apply heat for a few moments to melt the solder Standard soldering irons are a little slow to heat up when plugged-in especially the large ones that are needed for big jobs. This de-soldering iron station reaches a tip temperature of over 788 Fahrenheit and the vacuum pump is more than capable of sucking away all the old solder leaving the component free to be removed.

Thus irons with a high wattage heat up faster and make it easy to maintain a high temperature. Soldering involves transferring heat. Lead-free solder has a higher melting point so its a bit harder to use and youll need a powerful soldering iron.

This article appears in the November 2017 print issue as A DIY Soldering Iron. Make sure you use wire nuts or electrical tape. It can be combined with various iron soldering stations presented above and it is a lot cheaper than a de-soldering gun.

The current source is powered by 8 V to reduce power dissipation. A visit to a local welding shop netted me a couple for only 1 each. Higher wattage soldering iron have more power thus making them better suited for heavy-duty projects than their low-wattage counterparts.

This was converted to hold a single tip made from a piece of carbon arc soldering rod. The video goes on to show how to make your own induction iron although missing is a power supply. What Makes a Good Soldering Iron.

You want to get a soldering iron that has the following features. Minimum power of 30W preferably 60W or higher. Soldering the connections is better but I wanted to test it first before I made anything permanent.