I was looking for soldering bits on ebay and saw this very cheap iron that obviously wasn't grounded. So I bought one for us to take a look inside.
Sorry for the rude jump-cut in the middle of the video that soiled all the juicy teardown goodness. The iPad decided to curtail the recording due to low memory, which is reasonable enough. Although there would be a lot more memory for video if it wasn't filled with no-choice "apps".
You can toss Big Clive a dollar for coffee and cookies at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
I'm not going to provide a link to the iron, since the lack of a ground connection makes it a bit shady for electronic work.

12 thoughts on “Inside the cheapest soldering iron on ebay.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars IMightBeYourNeighbour says:

    Probably lucky the cord detached to where it was visible broken or could have cause ld a very nasty short

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars xnamkcor X says:

    This is why you really should only get quality hardware. Mine cost 500p.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SUPRAMIKE says:

    This is pushing the line between soldering iron and metal stick shorted across mains.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Spallsballs says:

    I am using one in Indonesia, first got didnt work, had to sand the tip down with knife sharpener, used old usb phone cable to fix my left to right headphone cable, worth it.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars William Stanton says:

    Thank you for this video, Clive.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rahul Manandhar says:

    I use this type of soldering iron. Been using for few years

    Could you make a video of diffrent types of soldering iron.
    And tell about them in one video?

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tesseract95 says:

    At least the hardware store give you a cheap weller.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars bill shuey says:

    Here in Thailand this iron is sold in the 20 Baht store for 60 cents US. (20Baht)

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars john halamka says:

    maybe 60-80 volts ……….

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jason Gooden says:

    They forgot to solder the wires in the soldering iron… 🤣

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Garry Sekelli says:

    Thane_rajan. He's a good buddy of mine. His name means king in scottish: thane and king in hindi: raja.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jage AicesHigh says:

    Doesn't resistance rise with heat? I could be wrong

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