GREAT SOLDERING TOOL / HACK

Oh my... I work for a solder manufacturer and that is a GREAT idea!

Thanks,

- Mario

Great tip. I'm going to have to try that one.

Seriously, what is the purpose?  The only benefit is to the firms selling mechanical pencils.  How long before someone reports that they clogged the tip with melted solder or bonds the tip to the work item???

I wouldn't worry about that problem. They probably have already superglued their fingers together anyway.

Ray Marion

Have you ever tried soldering to the tip of a mechanical lead pencil?  Before hurling the insults you might try it, it's not as easy as you might imagine.

Maybe it's just me but, I really can't see the usefulness of using a mechanical pencil to hold solder while soldering. Many times I have been soldering small items, or wires to rails, I have the iron in my right hand, pliers holding the second piece/wire in my left hand, and the roll of solder held between my teeth. Thus, with a nice long length of solder unrolled from the solder roll, I can carefully apply nice small bits of solder as it melts & flows. Now try THAT with a push-button mechanical pencil!

Its a good idea regardless of what people think. Now if they can come up with something to keep my fingers from sticking to gather(super glue) or burning my tong while soldering that would be great.

Before hurling the insults you might try it, it's not as easy as you might imagine.

Gunrunnerjohn, Just what I like about this forum. These guys make me look like a nice guy.  I would agree, try it before you bash it.

There is always room in life for a new mousetrap!

Hot Water, we can get you filmed, an put on the TV Show "That's Incredible"

Lucky for me, I can solder a flea to a flies butt at 100 yards, after a lot of practice on HO decoders and track!---Mark

GRJ & KRM,

You guys got, "Old Fashioned Class", Thank you!

God Bless,

"Pappy"

I'd like to see the video of HW soldering, sounds like a hoot!

Sorry but, I have been on TV more than enough. No more for me.

I want to think about that holding the solder in my mouth for a while.

I did NOT mean that I "hold the solder in my mouth". What I meant was, I hold the ROLL of solder between my teeth. Thus, no solder actually touches my lips, if that is what you were concerned about.

For what it's worth, OGR had a photo of me doing soldering with Grandson Jake, taken by my wife. I have no idea what issue the photo was printed in (maybe 6 or 8 years ago?), but it was actually pretty cool.

Great tip,

Although I'll have to reserve judgment on the imaginative methods used by folks (me included) for holding solder with various body parts, this sounds like a very good idea for soldering components on cct. boards, repairing traces, working in small spaces, etc.  I'm definitely going to give it a try; anything that helps out with minimizing the amount of bulk you have to hang on to or move around while soldering has got to be good. 

I'm certainly not going to try mounting the solder on a pencil sticking out of my ear

....again!

r0d