plastic welder to solder with?

[Bionic-Badger]

You know, there are reasons why those hot air pencils cost $900, and a plastic welder or even a hot air rework station is about an order of magnitude less expensive. You ought to put a little more thought into why people don't use the latter in place of the former. You know, temperature control, precision, usability, etc. Once you understand the differences, then maybe you can hack something together from cheaper parts to emulate the professional tool.

Until then though, it's just naive to believe you'll be able to turn something like a plastic welder into a tool that is comparable to a hot air pencil. If it were that easy, people would've done it long ago. Put some thought into it before plopping down any amount of money on some hack-solution that may end up wasting your money--money you could be saving for a real solution (like the actual hot air pencil) or something else.

 

[lasersbee]

You guys crack me up.....:crackup:
I wouldn't want to buy and PCBs assembled with that
$55.00 Plastic Welder....


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

 

[Mohrenberg]

You guys crack me up.....:crackup:
I wouldn't want to buy and PCBs assembled with that
$55.00 Plastic Welder....


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

but assembled with a $10 toaster oven is fine?

 

[benmwv]

Turn the pressure down and maybe attach a smaller nozzle and I don't see any reason it wouldn't work. Very worst case scenario I might have to put a temp sensor and bypass the original power control circuit with my own.

Its just a heater with air going past it same as a professional hot air station, no reason it can't work. Its kinda like people adding temp control to a ratshack iron. What you end up with is close to the professional tool but for much less.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

but assembled with a $10 toaster oven is fine?

An area heater with temperature feedback and PID control? Yes. The ability for the toaster oven to perform like a semi-professional SMD solder reflow oven comes from its PID control.

A bicycle-handlebar-sized plastic welder attached to a 13ft long pressurized air tube to emulate a pencil-sized hot air soldering tool? No. You might as well just use a hot air reflow tool like linked-to above. They're not interchanged because people buy those hot air pencils because the hot air reflow tool is too big.

Like I said before, research what people buy hot air pencils for, and why they're expensive. Hot air pencils are supposed to be precise, small, and temperature controlled. That's why other attempts at DIY hot air pencils just fix an air pump to something like a soldering iron, not some giant tool like a plastic welder. Even those only partially fulfill the requirements of an actual hot air pencil.

 

[lasersbee]

but assembled with a $10 toaster oven is fine?

Sure... but only if you use it with a PID controller to keep
the internal temperatures at a precise level and you closely
follow the Preheat/Heat/cool curves for proper flow soldering.


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics