retarded noob here!

mustang_steve

mustang_steve

c[H]ewbacca
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
11,117
Kester "44" rosin core is your friend.

The thin pencil irons are avialible at most industrial electronic supply stores (RS is NOT an industrial electronic supply store).

Weller makes a few solder pencils you can find for cheap, can't remember exactly but I think it was around $30.

What you most likely saw at Cisco was a solder station. Some of those get outright scary in cost. A decent station starts at $100. A really good station starts at about $800, but many of those are overkill for the hobbyist. Just grab whatever is cost effective for how often you use it. I prefer stations myself, but don't use them often at all, so I bought a PoS $40 Elenco station. It's ghetto to the max, but it's good for soldering as fine as 26ga and as heavy as 14ga, and has the wattage to get the job done.

If you get just an iron, get a proper spring-type holder for it, it's far safer than that metal thing that comes with many irons.
 
I heard that 15 watt soldering irons are choice. Anything higher might be overkill. I actually have a 40 watt one, but I don't know. I wish I could find a much finer tip for it.

And yes, I hate the guns as well. Gimme a soldering "wand" :)rolleyes:) any day of the week over a soldering gun.
 
Originally posted by y_T
I heard that 15 watt soldering irons are choice. Anything higher might be overkill. I actually have a 40 watt one, but I don't know. I wish I could find a much finer tip for it.

And yes, I hate the guns as well. Gimme a soldering "wand" :)rolleyes:) any day of the week over a soldering gun.
Click to expand...

Low wattage irons are how you pull traces and overheat big parts. You want something that will heat the area you want to solder quickly before it soaks to the rest of the part.

Get on ebay, buy a used Hakko or Metcal soldering station for $75 and a set of new tips for $15.

15 watt irons are cheap for a reason.
 
15 watt irons are good for extremely fine work, or for small gague wire splices. Not worth it in my book. I would use a butane soldering iron before I would use a 15 watt iron.

Here are some links to examples of solder stations and irons.

http://www.elenco.com/elenco.pdf
Page 36
The SL-5 is the one I have, it's crap but it gets the job done right.
The SL-10 or SL 30 are the preferred models from their catalog, but are not as good as anything made by Weller, Hakko, or Metcal.

Weller Solder stations http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/weller/soldering_stations.htm

Hakko soldering products http://www.hakkousa.com/WEB1/Products/Soldering.htm

Metcal soldering products http://www.metcal.com/findproduct/1.1.1.htm
 
Ah I see. Yeah, I read about console modding and crap like that and they use 15 W ones because they don't wanna b0rk their mobos I guess, haha. Never too careful.

I guess the wattage you need depends on the application :)
 
ok, so i guess ill go with a solder stick thing that is some where between 15 and 40 watts...preferablly on the higherside...im goin to radio shack for sure so its gonna be hard to find good stuff...oh and also im gonna get 60/40 rosin core solder
 
Originally posted by y_T
Ah I see. Yeah, I read about console modding and crap like that and they use 15 W ones because they don't wanna b0rk their mobos I guess, haha. Never too careful.

I guess the wattage you need depends on the application :)
Click to expand...

The TEMPERATURE you need depends on the application.

Fine work is much easier and safer with a high wattage temperature controlled iron.

You won't see 15 watt irons at electronics manufacturing plants. The lowest you will see is a 40W temperature regulated iron.


I don't understand what people are thinking when they work on a $300 piece of electronics with a $7 iron.:rolleyes:
 
There's a reason for "high wattage" irons, like Magic H8 Ball explained. The high wattages allows the iron to deliver heat quickly to the joint. The key here is quickly, so as to minimize transfer of the heat to more sensitive components. The small surface area of the tip means that this heat is delivered only to a small area, where it is needed but no more. 60 W is actually a desirable spec.
 
thanks steve, we used the metcal. if anyone is doing alot of soldiering it well worth the money to get a station they way mode accurracy and not to menchin comfort
 
The wattage of an iron is mostly immaterial to the temperature. The wattage is only an indication of how fast the iron is able to replenish it's heat. I usually prefer to solder quickly at a high heat in order to reduce the amount of time the iron is in contact with the joint.

My tool of choice is usually a Hakko 936 with fine tip. I usually like a fine non-flux core solder as well. I use a separate flux paste/pen/liquid as necessary.

The non-flux core stuff along with a flux pen is especially suited for SMT applications.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top