Making Your Own Soldering Station

On the heels of yesterday’s post about experimenting with turning an ultrasonic cleaner into a ultrasonic cutter comes this far more successful reverse engineering of a technology to turn it into something useful.

On GreatScott!, Scott was lusting after an expensive JBC soldering station (which start at US$500). When he realized that the iron itself was only $70, he decided to get one and build his own control station around it.

As with all GreatScott! videos, he does an excellent job of explaining and documenting his process as he figures out what wires on the iron control what and what he will need in the temperature control circuit to build the board for the control station. With his reverse engineering done, he sets about designing and building the circuit and the 3D printed enclosure for the station.

Even if some of the fussier electrical engineering goes over your head [raises hand], Scott has provided a full parts list, circuit diagram, the control software, and the 3D print files for the enclosure. So you can build one of these yourself even if you don’t understand everything at work here. His excellent Instructable has more.