I've owned I think four store bought soldering irons. Last one I purchased was around 2007 for maybe 30 bucks at radio shack.
All of them were in that range and all of them were garbage.
I think it was around 2012 I did some hard searching for something that was not stupid expensive and not a piece of shit. I eventually built this. It is by far the best soldering iron I have owned and cost pennies to build.
https://i.imgur.com/gvO94p6.jpgTip is approx. 16 ga. copper wire. I think that is an old bicycle spoke wrapped around it. Scrap dowel rod handle and uprights. Some thicker wire in the uprights for adjustable rest. Simple alcohol bunsen burner for heat. Hot glue stick laying between uprights. Can in front is cap for burner.
registereduser 0 points 5 months ago
If you're referring to the bulky tip, ya kinda. But the stuff I work on is all ugly construction so I can put parts where I want them to make room.
Store bought one in the 30 dollar range are absolute garbage in comparison. Shitty tips, too cold, and so on. Especially when you consider price, which is practically free for this one. This specific one was in fact made from all scrounged (free) parts. The only expense is the fuel. Don't know how the price of fuel would compare to price of electricity would compare. Probably elec. would win big time, but I don't use it enough for that to be a consideration.