Soldering Iron: What is it and how does it work?

All About the Soldering Iron

              A soldering iron is a hand tool used in soldering. It supplies heat to melt solder so that it can flow into the joint between two work pieces. A soldering iron is composed of a heated metal tip and an insulated handle. The soldering iron here at the MakerSpace is typically used for fusing wires together with solder, and can really come in handy with circuitry.

              The image above, shows a button that I have
soldered to the two separate wires to make a working light switch.
 As shown, the wires are securely in place, and are not going anywhere.

There are a couple components of this machine which are the base, the hand tool, the solder and the poof cleaner.

The soldering station:
   There are two parts that go into making this station: the base and the hand tool. The soldering hand tool is a metal rod with a small slanted tip which is also very small in order to carefully and precisely solder. This tool has heat being conducted through it from what is called the base. The base is where the hand can be placed when  it is not being used but it also decides how many watts of energy is being used to solder. The dial that is numbered 1 through 5 shows the different amount of heat possibilities ranging from 5 watts to 40 watts however this all depends on which soldering iron is used. The handful heats up very quickly and is able to heat up in just about a minute.

The Hand tool in resting position inside the base.

Hand Tool

The Solder:
     The solder is a metal with a Low melting point and and one that also cools very quickly as well. It is very effective in connecting wires and such and is a very important to the soldering process. There are many different types of solder. As shown below, these are the solder metals that we have at the Makerspace.

Cleaner:
    This is what cleans the hand tool after it is used. It takes off any of the old solder that has dried on the tool and is useful in between different soldering periods.

Clamp: 
      This is very helpful and holding the two wires together that are being soldered.

How To Work the Soldering Machine:

1.   Turn the machine on and set the heat to whatever you need it to be by turning the dial.
2. Then use the clamps to hold together the two materials you will be soldering together.
3. Then take the hand tool and place it underneath the two wires which are connecting, and place the solder on top of it. The metal of the wires will conduct heat and the solder will melt on top of the two wires, securing them in place. 
4. Unclamp and use your new soldered masterpiece!