Recently I had to repair the circuit board in my smoke alarm. For a job of this delicacy, I needed. a soldering iron with a small-diameter tip, but all I had was a soldering gun with a fat, cumbersome electrode with a curved end. So I made a pointy-tip extension out of 16-ga. copper wire, as shown in the drawing, and affixed it to the existing tip with twists of copper wire. The new tip allowed me to make precise patches to the tiny circuits.
Joseph Kaye, Uniondale, NY
