18650 soldering iron

[daniel444]

soldering iron build
uses ngk glow plug , silicon nitride ceramic tip , 3mm tip , top of the line glow plug
25A momentary microswitch , beer keg stainless tube surround
fits a weller tip after being drilled out with 1/8 drill bit , then uses a small offcut of pyrolitic graphite thermal pad to hold it on by friction

switch needs to be held on about 1/3 of the  time for lead solder
pictured is a spare glow plug and a Chinese nitride glow plug i bought , the Chinese version wont fit the weller tips at 4.4mm but is cheaper and more readily available

draws about 10 amps , im NOT using the high drain 18650s if i were it might be to powerful maybe

[fmkit]

  mine also looks crude,  unlike original temp.is contrlled w/MT3608 DC step_up,as well 18650 is under-voltage protected.

[ElectricPower]

I found out yesterday that i'm not a REAL man when i saw the soldering iron this guy used. Take å look from (08:34) in this video 

[Black Phoenix]

I found out yesterday that i'm not a REAL man when i saw the soldering iron this guy used. Take å look from (08:34) in this video 

 

Ohhh damm, my sides!!!

[daniel444]

That's insane, why have I never thought of using diesel glow plugs before, they'd be brilliant for all sorts of things

yes i might use it to vaporize some essential oils , with the solder tip removed of course , id like to do a torture test on the silicon nitride strength and inertness   

[mikerj]

Just need to add a PWM controller.  I'm wondering if it would be possible to derive the temperature by taking current & voltage measurement during the on period to calculate heater resistance..

[mikerj]

I think the vape guys do that kind of measurement on the more sophisticated controllers.

A possible snag with many modern glowplugs is they integrate some kind of regulating element (presumably some kind of PTC)  in series with the heater element.  This may not be a problem since a soldering iron would be operating well below the normal regulated temperature.

[KL27x]

https://youtu.be/en8bh60K7m8?t=110



This is probably 12 years old. I just checked it. It still works. Microcontroller, PWM standy and autoshutoff. Single button interface.