Soldering iron uses

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**Amen Brick**

My dad gave me a soldering iron (small portable type) at xmas and I'm not sure what to do with it - I only recently discovered the joy of physical work, lol. (I've had more use out of the lovely little magnifying glass with croc clips).

Is it better than pinning for metal bonds? Can I make (simple) objects out of metal? Anyone with one use it and how?

**Miguelsan**

No! don´t do it! As the white metal alloy has a very low melting point the soldering iron will kill all detail.

M.

**Leigen_Zero**

have tried soldering a killa kan once, all I ended up with was huge blobs of solder here and there and no actual bonding at all, took me ages to get the solder off so I wouldn't reccommend using one.

**Deff Dread red Edition**

I agree I think it would make a terrible mess.

**Amen Brick**

Ok, bonding is out. How's about the other questions?

**Agamemnon2**

You can actually solder white metal just fine, you just need to do it at considerably lower temperatures and using solder explicitly designed to have a low melting point (the lowest that comes to mind is 80C). But without a good temperature control, you'd be doomed to fail.

Aside from that, it's essentially useless in the hobby.

**MJThurston**

DO NOT USE IT FOR ANYTHING with models components.

I use soldering irons in my job and they are not for models. The only thing you use them for is if you had some electronics you wanted to use in your models. ie lights for your vehicles. Other than that DO NOT use it.

**Kilkrazy**

Soldering irons are for making electrical connections.

Never use a soldering iron on metal figures as it just melts them beyond recovery.

**MJThurston**

You know let me take some of that back.

I have used a pointed tip to put bullet marks in my vehicles and I have run it down the sharp edges of vehicles to make them warn looking. You have to bring the temp down to about 300 degrees. If you do not have a temp control you have to be extremely careful because plastic has a very low melting temp.

**usernamesareannoying**

i know at least two people who have used soldering irons to turn fantasy orks into some very convincing plague bearers by simply burning holes in them.

**BigToof**

I use one for scenery. It's very good for making rock outcroppings and the like, since you can use it to melt the plastic. Other than that I wouldn't recommend it for much in the hobby.

**lokilokust**

Back almost a decade ago, now, i knew someone who was a jeweler by trade and he exclusively used a soldering iron to assemble all his metal miniatures.
He was also, again, a jeweler by trade and i have never encountered anyone else able to work so well with a soldering iron.

**Clthomps**

you can use it to make battle damage on your minis, but I wouldn't make any connections with it.

**JOHIRA**

When I was starting out modelling I used one to make what looked like large laser cannon damage on a space ship kit. I liked the way the plastic bunched up around the hole like melted metal might.

But then you probably don't need a soldering iron for that, you can probably achieve the same effect by putting a screw driver in the flame of a gas stove for a couple seconds.

**Phryxis**

I used to use a soldering iron to soften the underside of bases so I could press magnets into them. The magnets were a bit too tall, so the melting was necessary. Since then I've gotten better magnets.

Soldering irons can also do good battle damage.

That's pretty much it.

**Clang**

Hmm, hold it very close to plastic arms/legs etc for x seconds to soften then bend them? I haven't actually tried it, but people do the same with candles (with wildly varying results), so in theory a soldering iron should be a more controlled heat source

**grizgrin**

You can wrap a paperclip around the end, leave about an inch sticking out, and use it as a stylus to draw welds at joints in vehicles and such.

**Deff Dread red Edition**

Yes but still a soldering iron is meant for soldering copper wire together in cables.

**chromedog**

The thing with many white metal alloys is this.
The temperature point at which they sublimate (go from solid to molten blobs) is only marginally lower than the actual melting point.

Ice slowly melts, giving you an idea of what's going to happen. White metals tend to go from solid, to slumping into a molten blob with no telltales. The surface doesn't change colour or texture.

You can use it for battle damage on a plastic or metal kit or to hook up electronics. Don't try to join metal bits, you're just asking for trouble, there.

**Kilkrazy**

If you want to make plastic softer to bend it more easily, check the physical properties of the plastic on the internet.

Most materials start to get soft -- lose structural strength -- before they melt. (This is what explains the Twin Towers collapse.)

Polystyrene starts to soften at about 90 degrees, if I remember correctly, so you can bend parts more easily by immersing them in hot water for a few minutes.

**Amen Brick**

Got it, no joining.

Like the battle damage idea and I would probably use it for that or for connecting large (scrap) metal bits of (scratch built) scenery. Even there I'll only do it on ruins.

**whatwhat**

If you are or ever get any good at sculpting soldering irons are handy for making armatures.