So I made this pen on the lathe out of solid aluminum and brass.

I use it to hold my solder wire for me. Its a life saving tool, I will tell you that.

So here it is:







Well their it is, am in the process of selling on amazon. If your interested in one of these pens, just message me.

So what do you guys think?

What I've been meaning to experiment with is a pneumatic soldering iron, one which uses compressed air as a source of energy.
I have, like so many others no doubt, accidentally burned my hands/fingers while playing around with compressed air trying to stop the airflow with my hands/fingers, only to end up giving myself a bad burn instead of stopping the flow, so once that mechanic/friction "heating thing" has been found it could very well be made to serve as a heat source for soldering irons/water heaters/etc etc.
Could come in handy when you don't have or can't use an electric soldering iron for the job at hand.

Quote from Lynx on December 21st, 2013, 03:39 PM

What I've been meaning to experiment with is a pneumatic soldering iron, one which uses compressed air as a source of energy.
I have, like so many others no doubt, accidentally burned my hands/fingers while playing around with compressed air trying to stop the airflow with my hands/fingers, only to end up giving myself a bad burn instead of stopping the flow, so once that mechanic/friction "heating thing" has been found it could very well be made to serve as a heat source for soldering irons/water heaters/etc etc.
Could come in handy when you don't have or can't use an electric soldering iron for the job at hand.

Hmm that is interesting.

Im sure you could do it several ways really. Using friction, would probably be the best option. Or super compression.

Probably need titanium and compress the air through a very tiny hole. Or through a very tiny spiral so that the friction builds up heat?

Im not sure, interesting idea though. I don't see any practical need for it as it would be bulky.

Quote from Lynx on December 21st, 2013, 03:39 PM

What I've been meaning to experiment with is a pneumatic soldering iron, one which uses compressed air as a source of energy.
I have, like so many others no doubt, accidentally burned my hands/fingers while playing around with compressed air trying to stop the airflow with my hands/fingers, only to end up giving myself a bad burn instead of stopping the flow, so once that mechanic/friction "heating thing" has been found it could very well be made to serve as a heat source for soldering irons/water heaters/etc etc.
Could come in handy when you don't have or can't use an electric soldering iron for the job at hand.

That sounds cool Lynx, I was thinking the same for printing. :P

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 21st, 2013, 04:15 PM

I don't see any practical need for it as it would be bulky.

What makes you say that?
Pinching the outlet of a 4 mm hose the wrong way in order to stop the flow will convince you that a pneumatic heating element wouldn't have to be all that big, the size of a pen would do just fine.

I'm sure car mechanics would appreciate such a soldering iron as you could put it down somewhere near you as you're working under the car without worrying about the tip burning stuff.
It could even be equipped with say a ceramic tip and a separate button for speed cooling the tip by having the air cooling it down.
In fact, the tip could by default be cooled down only to get heated up at the push of a button, ceramics respond fast to changes in heat, much like my fingers......

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 01:52 AM

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 21st, 2013, 04:15 PM

I don't see any practical need for it as it would be bulky.

What makes you say that?
Pinching the outlet of a 4 mm hose the wrong way in order to stop the flow will convince you that a pneumatic heating element wouldn't have to be all that big, the size of a pen would do just fine.

I'm sure car mechanics would appreciate such a soldering iron as you could put it down somewhere near you as you're working under the car without worrying about the tip burning stuff.
It could even be equipped with say a ceramic tip and a separate button for speed cooling the tip by having the air cooling it down.
In fact, the tip could by default be cooled down only to get heated up at the push of a button, ceramics respond fast to changes in heat, much like my fingers......

Yes but their is still going to be a small delay for the heat up time which will get annoying. Let alone the soldering tip is going to hold its heat pretty well. This is why they built something called soldering stations to hold the solder iron. Mechanics probably aren't going to sue a soldering iron all that much anyway.

I think your idea may have some use, but limited under specific conditions. Otherwise an electric or gas solder is still supreme.

Can you give an example of where it would be more beneficial than an electrical or gas solder iron?

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 11:01 AM

Yes but their is still going to be a small delay for the heat up time which will get annoying. Let alone the soldering tip is going to hold its heat pretty well.

Not true for ceramics.
Besides which, as it's powered by compressed air it could be made to be cooled down by air aswell as I previously outlined,

Quote

It could even be equipped with say a ceramic tip and a separate button for speed cooling the tip by having the air cooling it down.

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 11:01 AM

Can you give an example of where it would be more beneficial than an electrical or gas solder iron?

I doubt it would be more beneficial in any given case except perhaps for those instances when you only have compressed air available as a power source.

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 11:57 AM

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 11:01 AM

Yes but their is still going to be a small delay for the heat up time which will get annoying. Let alone the soldering tip is going to hold its heat pretty well.

Not true for ceramics.
Besides which, as it's powered by compressed air it could be made to be cooled down by air aswell as I previously outlined,

Quote

It could even be equipped with say a ceramic tip and a separate button for speed cooling the tip by having the air cooling it down.

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 11:01 AM

Can you give an example of where it would be more beneficial than an electrical or gas solder iron?

I doubt it would be more beneficial in any given case except perhaps for those instances when you only have compressed air available as a power source.

Hmm, I see your points. I mean its not a bad idea, I just don't see a need in the market for it.

How about me and you design it? We can be the first ones? Ill machine the device, why don't you give me a PM or something on how you want to go about it. ;)

Well if I had any thoughts about going into market with it I probably wouldn't have posted about it in the first place :angel:
This is an open source forum after all so feel free to have a go at it, would be awesome to see a first of it's kind, I might even place an order for it

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 12:32 PM

Well if I had any thoughts about going into market with it I probably wouldn't have posted about it in the first place :angel:
This is an open source forum after all so feel free to have a go at it, would be awesome to see a first of it's kind, I might even place an order for it

Im not saying we are bringing it to market. But why not create it, give the design out for free and also offer premade ones. This is all about open source, so lets keep it that way.

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 12:34 PM

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 12:32 PM

Well if I had any thoughts about going into market with it I probably wouldn't have posted about it in the first place :angel:
This is an open source forum after all so feel free to have a go at it, would be awesome to see a first of it's kind, I might even place an order for it

Im not saying we are bringing it to market. But why not create it, give the design out for free and also offer premade ones. This is all about open source, so lets keep it that way.

Sure, that would be awesome.
I really haven't given it any bigger thought other than having realized it could be done by restricting the airflow through some narrow passage which is flexible to it's nature as that's what happened when I burned my hands/fingers while trying to stop the airflow.
That's about all I can offer regarding the secret sauce here, to have the airflow get into some resonance of sort with some flexible nozzle somehow which then heats up, really fast I might add...................it gets hot as all hell in no time at all

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 12:47 PM

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 12:34 PM

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 12:32 PM

Well if I had any thoughts about going into market with it I probably wouldn't have posted about it in the first place :angel:
This is an open source forum after all so feel free to have a go at it, would be awesome to see a first of it's kind, I might even place an order for it

Im not saying we are bringing it to market. But why not create it, give the design out for free and also offer premade ones. This is all about open source, so lets keep it that way.

Sure, that would be awesome.
I really haven't given it any bigger thought other than having realized it could be done by restricting the airflow through some narrow passage which is flexible to it's nature as that's what happened when I burned my hands/fingers while trying to stop the airflow.
That's about all I can offer regarding the secret sauce here, to have the airflow get into some resonance of sort with some flexible nozzle somehow which then heats up, really fast I might add...................it gets hot as all hell in no time at all

Aluminum would heat up fast and cool down fast. That's just a thought. What about a turbine driven friction plate?

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 12:59 PM

Aluminum would heat up fast and cool down fast. That's just a thought. What about a turbine driven friction plate?

My initial idea would be to have a "motionless" heater, only to use some resonant vibrating friction as a heat source, that's what I'd be looking to get.
Other than that I really can't say any more as it's only an idea so far.
I have a thermal imaging camera which I would use for this kind of experimenting, let's me know if I'm on the right track if I all the sudden were to see an increase in temperature.

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 01:38 PM

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 12:59 PM

Aluminum would heat up fast and cool down fast. That's just a thought. What about a turbine driven friction plate?

My initial idea would be to have a "motionless" heater, only to use some resonant vibrating friction as a heat source, that's what I'd be looking to get.
Other than that I really can't say any more as it's only an idea so far.
I have a thermal imaging camera which I would use for this kind of experimenting, let's me know if I'm on the right track if I all the sudden were to see an increase in temperature.

Oh I see, so you want to induce friction by resonating a plate for example?

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 02:10 PM

Oh I see, so you want to induce friction by resonating a plate for example?

That was my initial idea, to sort of replicate hand burning by heating up something else........

Quote from Lynx on December 22nd, 2013, 02:19 PM

Quote from GoldBl4d3 on December 22nd, 2013, 02:10 PM

Oh I see, so you want to induce friction by resonating a plate for example?

That was my initial idea, to sort of replicate hand burning by heating up something else........

Im sure that's not from resonance but from the friction of the air escaping from the nozzle to your hand.

so something like that might work. Super compression, or high pressure low discharge type of element might work. (made that name up)

Anyone else? What do you guys think?

the key to soldering is to heat the object. not the solder...

so the gun will need to heat the object to the point where the solder melts when in contact with the part being soldered...

my 2 cents. cold solder joint every time if not...

~Russ

PS like the pin idea.

should it have a spring to keep it sticking out the end? ill end up turning it upside sown and it will fall back inside :)

Quote from ~Russ/Rwg42985 on December 27th, 2013, 05:34 PM

the key to soldering is to heat the object. not the solder...

so the gun will need to heat the object to the point where the solder melts when in contact with the part being soldered...

my 2 cents. cold solder joint every time if not...

~Russ

PS like the pin idea.

should it have a spring to keep it sticking out the end? ill end up turning it upside sown and it will fall back inside :)

Nice, I thought of a spring, but the brass bushing inside is used to pull the coil smoothly and straighten it out. Since its a hole just slightly bigger than the solder itself, it is more than enough to sold the solder in place.

Ill do some experimenting.