Soldering Iron - What to Get?

[ErnieJones]

Hi!

I just saw the new docs that jmscortina created and, as such, I now have more faith in pursuing module creation (oh, no, you've created a monster now!).

Anyway, I would need to pick up a soldering iron, is there anything specific I should get? I'm looking to work on the Microsquirt Module. Any pointers would be appreciated!

[billr]

This, from the Digi-key site:

WES51-120V-ND

[racingmini_mtl]

That would be another one: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10707.

Jean

[Matt Cramer]

We use Weller W60P3s for all through hole soldering at our shop.

[Hey_Allen]

If you're careful with your time on component, you can even use one of the simple 15w irons, but they're not nearly as nice as the ones mentioned above.

If money is less important than nice features (and you'll be using it more than just once to build your MS!) you could look at the Weller WD1 soldering iron family, but they start around $300.
VERY nice irons, and I drool over them any time I bring projects in to work to use the one at my work bench, but even as an avid electronics tinkerer I can't justify one for my personal use!

[DaveEFI]

I do quite a bit of soldering, and far prefer my Antex temperature controlled 50 watt low voltage type. It's lighter than the Weller (which I also have) and just more pleasant to use.

Whatever you choose, make sure spare bits of various sizes and elements are 'off the shelf' and is a make which has been around for some time. A good soldering iron will have a long long life - provided you can get consumables.

[ErnieJones]

Thanks for all the replies

Because of my new account I was under moderator review for a while and so...during the interim....of course I went and checked out ebay for a search on soldering iron - scary, I know!

Anyway, what I came up with was this, yes it's Chinese, but, it comes with 6 different soldering tips and also 4 extra heater inserts (in case they blow) as well as a bunch of other stuff. I figured the DC power supply could be useful, the re-work side of it could be useful, and of course, a new soldering iron would be really useful! It heats up fast and uses Hakko (?) style tips so they can be replaced with quality stuff if required. Anyway, here's some pics of what I got coming...





Hopefully it will do the trick but it makes me feel so engineer-like that I couldn't resist

[elaw]

Just to clarify: that is a soldering iron and not a space shuttle, right?

My iron is a little more basic, although it does have two different functions: "on" and "off".

[ErnieJones]

Just to clarify: that is a soldering iron and not a space shuttle, right?

My iron is a little more basic, although it does have two different functions: "on" and "off".

Well, here's the funny thing. For years my iron was the $5 one pictured below. I can't tell you how many times it burned me. Remember that Beatles line? "I've got blisters on my fingers!" It took so long to warm up that I could make a pot of coffee..and drink it. I was always in fear of burning the house down because I had no holder for it. It once fell off the desk and onto the floor where it left a nice straight line on the carpet... When a large piece of the tip broke off I found out that the replacement ones I was buying would not fit. I can't tell you how many I brought home only to return them later to get my $2.99 back I then learned that I could take the tip to the grinder and re-shape it

But, still, I was able to come to a place where I could solder to the point where you could not see the difference between the factory soldering and mine. What I find interesting though is that the station I bought (for $119 delivered no less), while it may be cheap Chinese (with tons of good reports - even from people using it for 4 hours a day every day), it's so much better then the $5 unit I had that I actually took the time to look up re-flow and soldering in general on YouTube. You would not believe what I learned. I mean, the only reason I actually did any research is because I've got the 'space shuttle' coming and I wanted to do it justice.

So in actual fact, buying that thing has already improved my abilities because it inspired me to actually have an interest as opposed to breaking out the old blister burner which really caused me to not want to solder anything if possible. I'll still keep the old girl but now it will be relegated to sealing the ends of rope - a task which, while stinky, it seems to work well for



Here's a link to Youtube video review on it - look how fast it heats up! From where I came from, this is going to be amazing!!

http://youtu.be/-g-wq19OhTc

[DaveEFI]

It will depend a great deal on what sort of things you work on, but my hot air unit gets very little use. What does get lots of use is my desolder station - an iron with a hole down the middle of the bit connected to a vacuum pump. It's one of those things that until you've had one, you don't know how you managed without.
Ages ago, I found nothing on the market (that I could afford) that did exactly what I wanted so I built my own.


It has two Antex irons which can be selected at a touch of a button (to cut down on bit swapping - one with a 1mm tip, one 3mm) and a further two with less used bits which you have to re-plug. The desolder iron is a Pace SX80.

Basically when constructing things I stick to through hole components. Surface mount is fine for factory build - or where space is really tight - but generally this doesn't apply to much of my stuff.

[ErnieJones]

Nice!

I remember seeing an article on those systems some time ago. My electronics experience is very limited - I'm really just an outsider trying to make a module. The hot air part of the re-work station is probably not something I'm going to use much of at all - I was really after a new soldering iron and that was just a bonus although the DC power supply will probably be helpful as well as convenient.

I'm curious, how does the solder sucker work? I would think that the molten solder would harden and then clog up the system?

[DaveEFI]

There is a solder catcher between the iron and pump, inside the iron handle. And a filter after that. With the Pace unit, the basic catcher is just a cardboard tube with a baffle which you replace when full. There is a type with a glass tube and stainless baffle which I'm now using - more expensive, but should last a long time.

The hot air gun with a small nozzle can be very useful for heat shrink sleeving - if it goes cool enough.

[ErnieJones]

That makes sense, so the solder drops off into collection before it cools off. I think that would be way better then the hot air gun but I suspect they are designed for two different jobs. The hot air wand was billed as being used for SMD removal. I tried to use it for other purposes and it did not not work well. But, those are all situations where I'm fluent with the iron and the wick

Understanding that, I then grabbed an old video card board and decided to try removing a bunch of SMD devices. To my surprise, if you take your time and use flux (make a mess) it actually worked very well just like the guy on YouTube showed. Thing is, now I have a bunch of nice and clean removed SMD devices that I really have no use for or understanding of It is kind of too bad though as some years ago I had a quad processor server that had memory boards in it. These boards were populated with a lot of SMD chips and the server was able to diagnose exactly which chip had failed. I also had some smaller boards, with the same chips, that I could have robbed and installed on the larger failed boards. Ah well, perhaps some day I'll have a use for it but as you mentioned, it would be ideal for shrink-wrap tubing and probably some other things.

But, I bought it for the soldering iron and the DC power supply and everything else is just a bonus. I did some soldering today with the iron and learned something interesting. My old iron must have been really hot because it was taking a long time to solder with the new iron @ 300c . In the end I turned it all the way up to 450c and got some good soldering and wicking from it. I guess I've been conditioned by my old crappy iron