Homemade Hot Air Soldering Tool - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

23 May 2003

On May 22, 11:23, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
...
  On Thu, 22 May 2003, Ethan Dicks wrote:

 > Was it here that I was reading about turning a RadioShack Desoldering
...
  > Iron into an SMT hot air tool?  The basic gist is
that you remove the
...
  > rubber bulb, plug in an aquarium pump on a
long-enough air hose, and
...
  > pack some (stainless) steel wool inside the
de-soldering nozzle.  The
...
   pump provides
continuous air over the steel wool which facilitates
 heat transfer to get the air temp up to something useful.  I have
 used $800 commercial versions of this at work with great effect. 
 Sounds cool.  I assume at some point you need to change out the steel
 wool? 
Probably not for a long time, if at all.  Commercial steel wool is
oil-coated to prevent it rusting.  Philip described his as going black,
which I expect will be the result of the oil carbonising in the hot air
stream.  The result will be a tough coating of carbon that will prevent
oxidation.  A similar idea is sometimes used for steel tools -- heat
until it develops a blue oxide layer then plunge into oil.  The
resulting blue colour is fairly pretty, and rust-resistant.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York