Home made solder pot >Have to tin like a gazillion wires! need solder pot, but how to make one thats cheap and easy? Halogen lamps run hot, but hot enough?, could it take it? would it shatter? could the relfector take the heat? would it short or explode? WELL IT WORKED! (dont try this at home kids) Some people call me dangerous, but for this one, even I put on the safety goggles.

	1     > Get halogen light fixture!

	2     > Take it apart! I didn't use the power adapter that came with this, mainly because the power adapters are why I have a pile of these in the junk bin. The lamps and sockets work great.

	3     > ReAssemble! I took the back off so this would sit flat, gonna melt the solder into that reflector area. Wires go out the side as part of the -sit flat- theme

	4     > THROW THE SWITCH! (no! not at me!) I put it in a -molten solder spill proof- container, being the risk of explosions and molten solder and screaming and running etc etc. The battery lasted about 5 minutes, makes sense, its a -half dud- pulled from a failed emergency light, I supplimented with a 12V powr supply I have

	5     > Throw in solder! The last solder pot I made was built from a modified kettle, (its a really fast way to remove chips off a pcb, if you dont mind some -minor- pcb damage }:) anyhow, what it taught me is that the first load is the slowest to get melted. I used plumbing solder for the bulk of it, then threw in all my scrap solder bits.

	6     > DO IT! time to test this out, esp seeing as it hasn't exploded yet. convenient little -on- indicator in the middle of the pot too! check out the pile I got done. Next project? a stripper that does 8 strands at once!

	7     > Marvel. cause really, was that cheap or what!? It pulls 3A of 12V, so you can run it off a computer power supply easy

	8     > Turn it off. One of the things I still don't know is if its gonna break when it cools. If it does, all I need do is (carefully) pour the solder into some water, it will break up into little blobs that easily melt back into the 'pot'. but if you dont have to, all the better, reheating will go faster if the solder is tucked tight around the heat source.

	9     > Improvements: Although this is only 50W, I got the suspicion that its too hot, it might be wise to put a thermal controller on it. I dont have an arduino, so that aint happening. ;)

	-     > Rue would like donations for his 12' mecha, parts 'er stuff. It could be worth mentioning that rue is looking for a female partner any reading this totally fit into the search criteria.