I was unable to find a hotplate so I Came up with my own technique to solder small parts and since I don't have 3 hands I used the device with the magnifying glass that the call a 3rd hand to solder the tiny resistors on a PCB. I used the alligator clip to hold the solder I then positioned it over the pad that I needed to solder and once one side is soldered in then it's easy to straighten and solder the other side, I used a rotary tool to grind a tip down to a very fine point as well and of course antistatic tweezers. It took me a fairly long time to figure this out and this is how I found this article in the 1st place, I didn't have the needed items and that's when this idea came to me. The 1st thought I had was to try and get something to hold the iron kinda like a spot welder but it wouldn't have worked, there is another way as well you can drop a bit of solder on one of the pads then you use the tweezers to hold the part heat the solder and position the chip in place this works fairly well but you have to have a small tip. Note: if you do try using what I refer to as teh presoldered pad only do it on one side and don't put too much solder on the pad all you want is enough to tack it down then solder the other side and add more solder to the pre-soldered pad if necessary. if you put too much solder on the pre-soldered pad it will make placing the chip or resistor straight and flat against the pcb