Soldering Iron or Soldering Gun?

and dont forget to practice de-soldering, a much harder skill!!!!! If your
going to do repair, you have to take the bad part out first!!!!

bob in phx.


"Taxman" <david.tkacs RemoveThis @norwalkhealth.org> wrote in message
news:250dd016-8a09-479f-aaf5-272224f1df6c@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com...
> Yes, never get a gun unless you want it only for coils and pipes.
> Dump the Watt Rod and get something with Temp adjustments. Do an RGP
> search.
>
> You will find Hakko and Weller stations for under $100 and well worth
> it. Search, search , search. there are a ton of conversations.
>
> Dave "Taxman" http://www.pinbald.com
>

On Jul 3, 4:33 pm, AWEInCA <aever....RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I've been using a cheap 40W soldering iron for wires and connectors.
> Things that are ok with an amature solder joint. I want to purchase a
> better soldering tool and practice soldering components on a throw
> away board.
>
> I've been looking and there are so many different kinds. Any advice?
>
> Thanks in advance

Get a temperature controlled soldering station with about three small
chisel tips to fit common lead/pad sizes plus a big one for things
like
coil lugs. If you can afford it or justify it for other hobbies
(audio,
computer repair, or whatever) pickup up a used Metcal MX500 like I did

There are two things to keep in mind:

1. The difference between heat and temperature. Heat is the energy
needed to move the solder from solid to liquid and get the component +
pad to the same temperature where solder wets it for a good bond.
Temperature is how hot it gets in the process. You can't change the
heat
requirement, but you can get it into the component and pad sooner so
the
temperature increase of the board is less which is important because
temperature is what causes failures in the adhesive holding board and
traces together.

With a conventional soldering iron, the tip reaches some temperature
where the heat lost to the air matches what's going into from the
electrical input. When you make a solder joint the temperature drops
rapidly which slows the rate of heat going into the component + board
so
it takes longer to get to the right temperature if it ever gets there.
Overheating the board/component before that happens is a possibility.

With a temperature controlled iron, a thermostat of some sort adds as
much heat as needed up to some limit to keep the tip at the selected
temperature so you get the parts hot enough fast without getting too
hot.

You really want a temperature controlled soldering station.

Tips which have more mechanical contact area will transfer heat faster
than thise with less.

Tips are cheap compared to boards (even Metcal tips don't run much
over $10 for common size/geometries on E-bay).

2. Ergonomics. Traditional soldering irons and guns have a long
distance
between your hand and what's being soldered. Where you're aiming at a
..040" lead that makes life more difficult than it needs to be.

You want to hold the soldering iron like a pencil.

The Metcal MX500 will put 50W into what you're soldering so you can
use
it for mechanical joints like board mounted RCA jacks, has a hand
piece
about as big around as your finger (thumb if you're a small person)
you can hold within not much over an inch to the solder joint, and you
can change tips and get it hot in under a minute.

A roll of 63/37 .030" solder with no-clean flux and matching flux pen
would be a fine idea. With the liquid flux you'll get better
penetration
when soldering 2-sided boards and be able to neatly tin wires so it's
easy do do things like soldering a pair of wires to a Molex receptacle
that need to fit in a housing.

A rubber band to fit the handles on your needle-nose pliers or
hemostats
are good too. You can use them as a heat sink to keep the heat in
the joint and not part/insulation where things get tricky, like the
aforementioned two wires one Molex receptacle.

The right tip plus a Soldapullt works well for desoldering pieces
where
you can cut the component off and remove (they almost fall out) the
leads
one-by-one, but I think I need a Hakko or Metcal desoldering station
to
make life less painful where that isn't the case.

On Jul 3, 6:19 pm, Drew Eckhardt <drew_eckha....TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jul 3, 4:33 pm, AWEInCA <aever....TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote:
> With a conventional soldering iron, the tip reaches some temperature
> where the heat lost to the air matches what's going into from the
> electrical input.  When you make a solder joint the temperature drops
> rapidly which slows the rate of heat going into the component + board
> so
> it takes longer to get to the right temperature if it ever gets there.

That's not quite complete. It's like having a small leak in a water
tank - when you put water in quickly you can get it full with limited
leakage in the time, but when the rate you're pouring is close to the
rate it's leaking out you aren't going to come close to getting it
full
and are going to spill more water on the ground than if you quickly
filled
it to the top and stopped.

I try to only respond to these "which soldering iron" threads once a
month. Anyway here is my standard answer: For the price, you can't
beat the one at the top of this page. The ZD 929C is all you will
ever need.

http://www.mpja.com/productsdirect.asp?dept=480&main=79&item1=15860+TL...em2=158

Go ahead and buy some extra tips and accessories while you are at it.

John


On Jul 3, 7:33 pm, AWEInCA <aever....TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I've been using a cheap 40W soldering iron for wires and connectors.
> Things that are ok with an amature solder joint. I want to purchase a
> better soldering tool and practice soldering components on a throw
> away board.
>
> I've been looking and there are so many different kinds. Any advice?
>
> Thanks in advance

When I started working on pins again I bought a gun. The middle of
the tip would get red-hot but the end couldn't melt solder. Properly
tinned and all that, still nothing. Dug out my old $15 iron and it
works great. Now I only use the gun to heat up heat-shrink tubing.
That red-hot part works great for that.
Fred

On Jul 3, 7:33 pm, AWEInCA <aever....DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I've been using a cheap 40W soldering iron for wires and connectors.
> Things that are ok with an amature solder joint. I want to purchase a
> better soldering tool and practice soldering components on a throw
> away board.
>
> I've been looking and there are so many different kinds. Any advice?
>
> Thanks in advance

Temperature controlled soldering station. When my soldering station
died in the middle of replacing a display, I went to my old soldering
iron...yuk. In comparison, it was like going from smooth fast
soldering and desoldering...to slow useless waiting for the iron to
get back to a temperature where it can just friggin melt the
solder...barely, and then get cool enough that I'd be halfway through
and have to wait again. And the results get sloppy. That lasted one
evening and the next day I was out buying another station. Soldering
irons are certainly not ideal for boardwork, not unless you like being
frustrated waiting for it to get to temp so you can use it for 5
seconds...then proceed to wait more.

Stan