here's an interesting soldering iron for the survivalist
many years ago i saw this type of iron and it had been in use in a starter/generator rebuild shop for many years
you take a wooden handle #2 philips screw driver
pull the steel shaft out of the handle, and drill thru the handle so that the steel shaft can be pushed clear thru
you then hammer and flatten the back end of the shaft, and drill it to attach a #8 stranded copper lead with a large aligator clamp on the other
end,,, the length of the lead on that one was about 6 ft long.
you then push the steel shaft back into the handle
on the working end you install a 1/4" copper tubing ferrule type union, torque down tight on the steel shaft
you then use a 1/4 inch carbon rod, (he got his out of an old carbon zinc D battery, but the rods are available at a welding shop)
he used a pencil sharpener to point the end of the rod,
cut the rod off at about an inch or a bit longer
install this carbon tip into the other end of the ferrule union and snug it up enough to keep in from falling out
you then attach the alligator clip to a 12 volt battery, and touch the tip to a convenient ground (not directly to the battery of course
it is under the bench and that is why the lead is 6 ft long)
in a second or two the carbon will glow red hot, and you can solder alot of connection before it cools
i watched the old guy solder up armature commutator connections pretty quickly with it, touch the ground and heat the tip
solder one or two, reheat, and repeat.
dirt cheap and very effective, no sal ammoniac, and no tinning required
anyway one to add to the end of the world files
bob g