The soldering tips are simply made from thick copper wire sculpted into the correct shape ... Hackaday has featured a few different DIY soldering irons and some pretty cool DIY Soldering Stations ...

Even if you’ve overcome your fear diddling about with tiny SMD components, applying solder paste – especially if you’re populating more than one board at a time – is still a chore.

That's when a little DIY boldness comes in handy ... then press the tip of the solder wire against the electronic component and the tip of your iron. If you've heated the component enough ...