[musicfan145]

I wanted to share my success "up cycling" an old soldering iron into a hot knife. Many of us have an old "starter" soldering iron gathering rust in the bottom of a tool box, and this is easy way to put it to good use. Here's what I did:

1) I sanded & filed the solder, rust, and other oxides off the old tip to get down to shiny copper.

2) Using a flat face of a ball peen hammer and the beck of a vice as an anvil, I carefully hammered the pointed tip into a thick-ish blade. I kept the tip loosely screwed into the iron for this, partly to give something to hold it by and partly to ensure that I didn't deform the threads on the tip. I knew that the thinner it got, the more likely it was to break, so I didn't try to go too far.

3) I then used a file to make it a little thinner, give it an edge & point, and clean it up. (File gently; this is another easy way break the tip.) Given a little more time, I would have also used a Dremel to smooth and polish the surface for easier clean up.

4) I tightened up the tip in the iron, plugged it back in, and let it heat up for 5-10 minutes.

I was pleased to discover that once it got up to temp, it worked great cutting Tech-Flex and paracord!

 

[Allanmarcus]

I have an old soldering gun that I converted in the hot knife!

 

[musicfan145]

I have an old soldering gun that I converted in the hot knife!

I almost went that route, but I couldn't bring myself to give Amazon $8.21 for the tip.

 

[Speedskater]

I have a store bought one similar to the one in the first post. But it has replaceable razor knife blades.
Also has a soldering gun one similar to the one in the second post. It is mostly used for turning rope into sailboat lines. There is only one rope on a boat.

 

[musicfan145]

I have a store bought one similar to the one in the first post. But it has replaceable razor knife blades.
Also has a soldering gun one similar to the one in the second post. It is mostly used for turning rope into sailboat lines. There is only one rope on a boat.

Yes, there are lots of good hot knife tips available for purchase. The point of this exercise was that I didn't have to buy anything.