Mitxela's Tim Alex Jacobs Converts Two TS101 Soldering Irons Into a Handy Soldering Tweezer Setup
And when the tweezering work is done, the irons slip out of the 3D-printed bracket for individual use once more.
Mitxela's Tim Alex Jacobs has been experimenting with soldering tweezers — not by using anything off the shelf, but by 3D printing a hinge that reversibly converts two low-cost TS101 soldering irons into a surprisingly handy tool for depopulating surface-mount boards.
"I did at one point, in my mission to invest in 'better equipment,' purchase a pair of soldering tweezers. These are not tweezers to accompany soldering, these are tweezers to perform the soldering, with two heated irons mounted to a hinged join," Jacobs explains. "They seem particularly appealing for desoldering surface mount parts. Most distressingly, the soldering tweezers I bought were faulty on arrival, but as I didn't need to do any desoldering at the time, it was a few months before I tried them out and discovered the flaw. Only one of the heating elements worked. Unbelievable. Outside of the return window too."
When Jacobs did find himself needing to desolder parts where the tweezers would have come in handy, he took a two-fisted approach — "dual wielding" a pair of identical TS101 soldering irons, one purchased as a backup for the other. That then led to an idea: what if you could convert two normal soldering irons into soldering tweezers?
"This week, some circuit boards I had assembled in China came back with an incorrect part fitted, which means I have to replace a hundred 0603 parts, and that had me thinking again about soldering tweezers," Jacobs explains. "The TS101 is less than half the price of equivalent soldering tweezers. And, I already have two of them. One in each hand is not as effective as a tweezer arrangement, which leaves a spare hand to manipulate other things. But what if…?"
Using an existing TS101 stand design, Jacobs put together a 3D-printable bracket that holds two irons at an angle so the tips nearly meet. Pressure on the irons, held together in one hand like an oversized pair of chopsticks with USB cables attached, brings the tips together — exactly like soldering tweezers. When you're done with the surface-mount stuff, both irons can be quickly detached for single use again — and you don't have to find somewhere to store occasionally-used soldering tweezers either.
The project is written up on Jacobs' website, with STL and FreeCAD files available for those who want to print their own.
