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FrozenGate by Avery

plastic welder to solder with?

Mohrenberg

Mohrenberg

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So I've always wanted a hot air pencil for soldering, but at hundreds of dollars it was way out of my price range.

I recently ran across this at harbor freight.
Plastic Welder & Welding Kit

blows hot air, with adjustable temperature. and the max temp is way above solder paste melting point. So I'm wondering if this can be used for soldering....
 





I have an older version of the harbor freight welder (somewhere - that doesn't mean that I can find it). If there is a simple way to try it (I have solder, but I assume you are talking about reflow?), I am willing to give it a go.
 
I have a "hot air welder" I use for ploypropylene with polypro welding rods.
Never tried it with solder. It may get hot enough.
But it is BLOWING air. I would think that would blow the stuff all over the place.
Not for precice work.
 
I think you may be talking about 2 different types. I know nothing about these for "electrical" purposes.
The harbor freight type blows hot air to melt plastic rod. There are different tips available. There are "double tubes" one for the air and the other to feed the rod.
Corner and tacking tips, etc.
I have an indusrial unit. They are usually rated in watts.
(heating element) There really is no temp control. You get the watt rating and adjust the air pressure. That is the harborfright type.
Good chance it would melt solder but no where as precise as a soldering iron.
Could be useful depending on what you wan to do.
 
I bought one of them hot air plastic welders from harbor freight to weld the fenders on my quads and they work rather well, it should have no problem with solder :)
 
The melting point of plastics is usually quite a bit lower than that of solder. The jacketing plastic used on many cables for example comes out of the extrusion head at 185C. If you get much hotter, the plastic would degrade. Solder takes at least 360C, and often quite a bit higher due to the limited thermal transfer and/or impurities in the solder. I doubt something like this would work for solder.

Lethere Belight said:
But it is BLOWING air. I would think that would blow the stuff all over the place.
Not for precice work.
Click to expand...

Well, the idea is that the fan speed is adjustable, or low enough to not blow components off the board.
 
Flaminpyro said:
I bought one of them hot air plastic welders from harbor freight to weld the fenders on my quads and they work rather well, it should have no problem with solder :)
Click to expand...

Have you tried it with solder at all? I plan to buy it either way since I can see myself using it for a million different things.

This one looks like it hooks directly up to an air hose. I'm not sure if it has it's own adjustable air speed, or if that's something that will have to be done externally. If so, I'm sure one can be made up pretty quick with some hose, a few connecters and a valve.
 
Last edited:
Cyparagon said:
The melting point of plastics is usually quite a bit lower than that of solder. The jacketing plastic used on many cables for example comes out of the extrusion head at 185C. If you get much hotter, the plastic would degrade. Solder takes at least 360C, and often quite a bit higher due to the limited thermal transfer and/or impurities in the solder. I doubt something like this would work for solder.



Well, the idea is that the fan speed is adjustable, or low enough to not blow components off the board.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't blow them off the board. Mine would "splatter" the solder all over if it melted it.
There is no fan. Hose is hooked to air compressor.
You are blowing hot air to melt/weld plastic rod.
Again, I belive we are talking about 2 different types.
 
Last edited:
but you could adjust the air speed so that it doesn't splatter or move the parts.
 
Again it is 2 different things. You don't just turn down the air flow and get the same temp. It is a balance. The air controls the temp. You are working with heated air.
Difficult to explain.
You kind of have "base heat" (not adjustable) and you adjust the air flow to fit the work.
The thing is designed to weld plastic rod.
You change air flow to adjust and fine tune the heat.
 
Lethere Belight said:
Again it is 2 different things. You don't just turn down the air flow and get the same temp. It is a balance. The air controls the temp. You are working with heated air.
Difficult to explain.
You kind of have "base heat" (not adjustable) and you adjust the air flow to fit the work.
The thing is designed to weld plastic rod.
You change air flow to adjust and fine tune the heat.
Click to expand...
Ah I see what you mean.
 
Says in the description there is a potentiometer to adjust temp. Looks like ill be going to harbor freight here soon. :D
 
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