How to build a REAL 30W soldering iron on a budget of $0.00! - pt 1

Sooo... Since my soldering related content seems to be much more popular, I decided to directly attack my hated "life hack gang" rivals by showing you guys what it takes to build a REAL FUNCTIONAL soldering iron out of garbage I have laying around. The goal is, to build a 30W soldering station with adjustable temperature that can be used to solder through-hole as well as SMD components, in order to replace the simple 15W soldering iron that has been my daily driver ever since I first ventured into electronics almost nine years ago. In this first part I built a soldering iron in which I can put the DIY soldering tips I showed you in my very first video uploaded to this platform.
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[@ChronicMechatronic]

Pheewww, this took sooo much longer than I had anticipated! Blew right through my self-imposed deadline... To all regular viewers of the channel: this is NOT the huge project I touted in the last few videos! I rescheduled it to the end of December in order to be able to do this video first.

[@martinsilva6020]

You are the first that makes a welder equal to the commercial ones and 100% functional.

[@ChronicMechatronic]

Exactly, that was the goal!

[@esoulnet]

Smart person, successful career 👍

[@HerrAlien]

My advice is to avoid using the cutting disc for grinding - it can break. Keep using it for cutting alone.

[@kartoontats3177]

I concur. Im all for using things in different ways than it was intended to be used, but I almost destroyed my face from an exploding cutting disc spitting fragments at me

[@gamedevsa]

Really really nice, well done!

[@sarkafilipova4543]

It would cost 0 bucks if i would have a/an: -Angle grinder - 50 bucks -Drill machine thing - 100 bucks -Space - already kinda have that -Dremel - idk 20 at its lowest prob -Materials - Brass - 2 bucks - Iron tube/clothes hanger - already have that/idk 10 bucks - Fiberglass sleeving - 2 bucks - Nichrome wire - 2 bucks - Wood - kinda already have that -Clamp - 5 bucks -Transformer - 12 bucks Together whoppin 203 bucks Anyways this is NOT a hate comment, love your work, also im feeling bad for your dog, may he rest in peace

[@ChronicMechatronic]

You're right! The biggest thing I've learned with my 3D printer project just now, is that nothing is ever truly free, it all just depends on how you calculate things. Even if all tools and raw materials were actually somehow obtained for free, there's a huge opportunity cost hidden behind getting my hands on them. Economics suck... Thanks for pointing out the non-aggressive intentions of this comment, I really appreciate valid criticism but sometimes it's hard to judge comments purely by their tone. Yeah our dog's a sad story - maybe fortunately for him he was already 16 yrs old and had a tumor at that point so he didn't miss out on too much of a happy life...

[@sarkafilipova4543]

I agree with you, economics can suck ass. And honestly, even tho nothing is free, atleast you proved something like this can be made! I'm glad you are not one of those click-baity indian channels, bc they show it for cheap, but when u make it you realise, half your hand is missing and the other one on fire so... yea... But anyways thanks for responding!

[@ChronicMechatronic]

@@sarkafilipova4543 those clickbaty Indian channels were actually a huge problem I had (and still have), because when my first ever two videos took off and got loads of views, they just happened to appeal to the sort of audience who watches those clickbaty Indian life hack type videos. Let's just say it's not the most pleasant and intelligent crowd out there and the algorithm kept wanting me to make soldering related videos with these grungy click bate thumbnails afterwards...

[@sarkafilipova4543]

@ChronicMechatronic I was actually searching "DIY Solder gun", when i found you! And the funny thing is... you looked the most genuine of them all for some reason! Watched the vid from top to bottom and enjoyed every second of it. And i am being completely honest too. After all, many youtubers are all fighting against this... "Algorithm machine" and it is not easy to get to the numero uno place. But here is a tip. Do what you love and fans will love it too. Even if the algorithm hates it! Every popular youtuber got his place, and i think it is time for you to claim one too.

[@satishkumar-gg5fm]

Nice and hard work.....keep going bro

[@strannik8234]

You are awesome! After watching several of your videos, I really enjoyed it despite the fact that I do not understand English well. You know, before your channel, I already despaired of finding some English-language channel on electronic DIY, where people use soldering irons of the classical design, and not exclusively soldering stations with temperature feedback, meaning classical soldering irons as something terrible and unsuitable for work. I really liked your homemade, it's cool! Now my favorite among my soldering irons is a similar 40 W soldering iron, only with a cord that includes grounding and a plastic handle, and of course it is purchased. Only it warms up the tip to more than 400 degrees Celsius by default, so I use it through a dimmer. We must assume that your soldering iron is running at 30 watts and warms up to somewhere up to 300 degrees Celsius, assuming that in the video it is heated to the maximum temperature. This is cool, now you can hardly find soldering irons that can do this by their design. Thanks for your video, great job! Greetings from Russia-Finland! :)

[@ChronicMechatronic]

Thank you for the comment :)

[@anmolkumar6704]

Just found your channel today from that cnc plotter video , you have pretty interesting stuff here :)

[@ChronicMechatronic]

Glad to hear that 😄

[@A2000s_kid]

Love you bro 😊

[@areloharel]

satisfying

[@brianfitzke5891]

Thanks I'm going to give it a try.😅

[@78dwk]

👍well done, Godbless

[@maciej.opalinski]

for 30 watts, 8 minutes to heat up is astronomically high. that probably happens because the heating element is outside and loses a lot of heat to the exterior. my soldering iron barely only gets a little hot at the metal part

[@ChronicMechatronic]

@Richard Golden-DeWitt congrats! You got in the video!

[@Myvillagevlog587]

Awesome

[@humacao01]

Well I watched it.... the LED bulb video. But with this one yet another great video... BTW how's baking going???

[@ChronicMechatronic]

I know you watched the led lamp video, sorry for calling you a nobody, along with everyone else who *did* watch it - I was just kinda frustrated... But thank you so much for keeping me motivated! Well, bakery, not much going on 😂 actually I quit after just six weeks... Just too much, too hard work, I was regularly so exhausted I couldn't even have managed to continue making one video per month, which I didn't really want to give up either... So that's why I doubled down on this channel full time during the second half of this year, to get things off the ground as fast as possible 😅

[@humacao01]

@@ChronicMechatronic Sorry to hear about the job.... But glad to hear that you are now giving the channel more time I really enjoy your videos... I hope your channel blows up, I can't even imagine the kind of stuff you would create if you had like unlimited resources...

[@ChronicMechatronic]

I hope it does, too, and I'll do what I can to make it blow up! Though for the moment I don't yet _quite_ understand what's holding it back ...

[@user-zg1od6ui3m]

The coefficient of thermal conductivity of iron, steel and brass does not differ much. This is about 45-85. But copper has a thermal conductivity coefficient of 390. Therefore, it makes no sense to look for brass if there is no copper. Iron will also do.

[@ChronicMechatronic]

True, hadn't thought to check - I assumed brass must be a lot better than iron due to its copper content... Also as I learned later, commercial soldering irons use steel/iron as well

[@rajsingh7940]

❤

[@rohansinghthakur2511]

Transformer use than bridge raktifire ????

[@tomyver6183]

List me pls all components he used for build this soldering iron pls :(

[@hariharank2363]

IR SOLDERING ... any idea on DIY....

[@erichernandez9182]

fred?

[@ChronicMechatronic]

No

[@anggorotriatmojo1200]

Dude, why aluminum, IT'S ALUMINIUM

[@ChronicMechatronic]

What is aluminum?

[@user-ug5sb6qg1u]

Is this legit? I'd hate to waste time and my only good copper bolt on something fake or useless.

[@ChronicMechatronic]

It is legit and I actually used this as my primary soldering iron for a year, though I'd recommend you go see the changes I did to the handle design in the subsequent episode. If I were to do this again I would try to find a thin walled stainless steel tube instead of the thick regular steel from the clothes drying rack because I always had issues with the handle getting uncomfortably warm due to the higher thermal conductivity. Also, the steel bolt I used was just fine, copper is not needed, in fact the surface of copper tends to oxidize and flake off, which doesn't happen with steel. Overall, other than for the novelty factor it's probably a waste of time though, seeing as great Chinese soldering irons with integrated temperature control like the 908s can be had for less than $10.

[@user-ug5sb6qg1u]

@@ChronicMechatronic thank you for your honesty and the video. I've wanted a soldering iron for a while, thought it might be handy but never did any research on buying one because I figured it was expensive but now I think I'll talk a digital trip to Amazon. 👍

[@ChronicMechatronic]

@@user-ug5sb6qg1u I always appreciate when people take a second to think critically about content they watch, because even though I always try to deliver correct information, the simple fact of me not knowing any better at the time, along with the constraints of media like video inherently tends to misrepresent reality a little bit.

[@user-ug5sb6qg1u]

@@ChronicMechatronic it can certainly be challenging at times. I enjoyed the video, a good blend of humor and information, even if I just buy a soldering iron instead of making one myself. The reason I wanted to know if the video was real was because of how many false ones I've found, it had me a bit cynical of everything.

[@ChronicMechatronic]

@@user-ug5sb6qg1u I know, the soldering scene is totally dominated by life hack crap, I'm a bit of an outlier...

[@hichobicho346]

Bla bla bla bla

[@ChronicMechatronic]

LOL. There's a reason for language to exist, and if you can't find the value in my use of it I'm afraid this might just not be the right channel for you to watch. Just sayin'