Tips and Tricks pencil-type soldering iron

Here some adjustments to make the most of our pencil-type soldering iron. in this case is for a 45W soldering iron.
The first is a temperature control, with the soldering iron of 45W and that sometimes requires a lower temperature at which this power can give, are adapted diode used as the 1N4007 and a night lamp switch.
Here the connection diagram.


As you can see is very simple and works as follows, When connected to an outlet and the switch is closed, alternating current is passed in its entirety by the soldering iron heater works 100%, thus obtaining the maximum temperature.
And when the switch is open alternating current can pass only half of the cycle, doing work the iron to about 50%, gaining almost half of its temperature.
Below some pictures

iron soldering and switch

connection details

final result

It should be noted that the switch only controls the temperature,but not disconnected from the electrical network, so it is necessary to disconnect from the mains to switch off.
Normally I connect to the switch is closed or on the soldering iron to heat quickly and then to 50% or opened.

-------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------

The following is adapted copper wire, I use a 14AWG gauge. This was done to get a lot thinner tip and extended to reach points where welds are more precious or difficult to access how the tracks of PC motherboards, mobile phones and others.

 



Note the point made with a diagonal cut to make it more fine.

So with the combination of the above adaptation is not necessary to have several soldering irons for different applications.
I hope this information is useful, for your comment thanks.