Hjalfi changes the plug on a soldering iron
Channel: Poking Technology
Date: 2019-09-01

In which yr hmbl svt tears down a very cheap desoldering tool from Banggood and attempts to fix some electrical safety issues (like the really dubious grounding). This turns out to be problematic in many ways, not all of which are related to my ability to make decent solder joints.

It's this one:  https://banggood.app.link/rulrwGX5CZ And, if you ignore the safety issues, really effective and works well.

I discovered later that apparently you _can_ solder aluminium wire, if you know what you're doing (which I don't). The secret is to scrape off the aluminium oxide on the wire with the tip of the soldering iron while a blob of molten solder is covering the wire. Without access to air, a new layer of oxide doesn't form, and the solder bonds to the wire. However, I'm not going to dismantle this thing again to do it, unless it's really necessary.