this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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What is this thing?
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Harbor freight sells a plastic "welder" that is basically just a soldering iron/wood burner with a big flat tip, might be what you are looking for
Yeah I've seen a couple. Problem is I still can't figure out exactly what temp I need to be at to melt the PLA without it burning or sticking to the melting tool. It seems to have such a specific temp where it all works but I am not able to replicate the same temp with the dial. I got a Lazer thermometer and the dial on wood engraver seems off by a good margin and not always in the same amount.
I gave up trying to keep plastic from sticking to the tool, instead I just wipe it on whatever junk mail I've received recently. Mine is set to about 220°C and I don't have to clean it super frequently unless I'm adding gobs of plastic for a deeper weld. I should also mention I use a soldering station which I've found has more accuracy than any plastic welders I've tried. Downside to this is that the plastic kinda ruins the coating on the tip for actual soldering, but I get around this by just swapping to another tip.