Soldering Irons

[Darin]

What kind of soldering irons do you use building your pcb ? I am thinking I might like the adjustable pencil type soldering station but new to this.
Any recommendations on what to look for or stay away from, and want brake the bank. Have looked at some on ebay and amazon for around $50 to $60 range but know nothing about the brands other than Weller which was priced higher naturally. Looking something reasonable priced for occasional use building detectors etc.


Thanks for any help

[DOOLEY]

hello darin.

a weller, or equivalent is 100w or there about's,
excellent for doing bigger wires,
but the tips are quite large,
sometimes hard to get in small spaces.

the tips don't last long either,
when I did a modified version of the ITMD raptor
I used 6 tips !!!

a thin pencil type for pcb's is essential ,
something around the 20-25w mark.
good for getting in to small spaces,
more controlled temperature also.

with a big weller you can easily lift tracks off
a board,
over heat the solder also.

best is to have both,
each for their specific job.

recently bought one from maplins here in the uk,
with a trigger button,
25w normal,
and 100w or so when on trigger.
as yet, seems quite good,
and only £20.

[sinclairuser]

i threw out my weller gun!, way too aggressive and clumbsy too, the only thing i ever soldered with it was radio coax plugs.
the stuff i have now is a 12w superfine weller iron, an old hakko fz888(temp controlled) i got off ebay cheap, and a chinese hot air pencil.
after my accident last year i struggle with small traces, so when i did the mpp, i soldered it from the top using the hot air pencil and solder paste, only using the iron and magnifier where needed, worked great.
in my opinion if you are on a budget and building kits, buy a good quality 12 or 25 watt iron, any higher power can damage traces, dont buy any of the super cheap clones many are dangerous.
a standard low watt iron is enough for building kits and small repairs, when you finish soldering unplug your iron, even quality non temp controlled irons burn out if left plugged in.

[Qiaozhi]

i threw out my weller gun!, way too aggressive and clumbsy too, the only thing i ever soldered with it was radio coax plugs.

I still have my Weller soldering gun, but haven't used it for years. It was quite useful when trying to repair wiring problems on various old cars. The problem with the Weller is the tip is not big enough, so it loses thermal inertia really quickly. It's all well and good having 120W of power, but any decent sized chunk of metal sucks the heat out of the tip in a microsecond.

A good general purpose soldering iron is a 25W Antex. For smaller work I use an 18W Antex, and (yes, you guessed it) an 80W Antex for big stuff. You have to be careful with the 80W iron though, as one touch in the wrong place and ... whatever you touched is vapourised.

For a while I did have one of the cheap Maplin soldering irons, but the tips seem to last about 5 minutes. As long as you keep the Antex tips tinned with solder, they last forever.

[Darin]

So really no need for the adjustable stations ?

Would this Antex M12 really be all I need for building PCB's. I have a basic 40 watt iron but was thinking that I could burn the board with that.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antex-Solder...item4ad58a69b5

[6666]

I have a basic 40 watt iron

Way too much for typical pcb work.

[Qiaozhi]

So really no need for the adjustable stations ?

Would this Antex M12 really be all I need for building PCB's. I have a basic 40 watt iron but was thinking that I could burn the board with that.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antex-Solder...item4ad58a69b5

As 6666 says, the 40W soldering iron is too powerful for general PCB work. On the other hand, a 12W is far too small, unless you're planning to solder lots of SMDs. I would advise using a 25W iron.

[Davor]

I had a 15W Antex for fine stuff, but got rid of it after a 3rd heater burned inside. And the tips were... odd. At times they had problems wetting. But all in all, it is a good tool for soldering small things.

After that I fell in love with Weller magnastat which is a perfect marriage of a simple iron with regulation. It uses a natural hysteresis of a Curie temperature of magnetic materials to keep a desired tip temperature which comes with the tip itself. It starts ticking when it is ready. No knobs, no soldering stations, and no extra cables. Just perfect.

BTW, the idea that the earth is magnetic because of having an iron core is unconvincing precisely because of high temperatures well above Curie temperature of iron, so don't teach your children that.

[Darin]

Thanks for all your help guys.

I saw plenty of 25 watt Weller irons local as well as radio Shack irons but thought i needed a 12 - 15 watt. Glad i didn't buy one if the weller tip loses heat to fast.
I think i will just order this Antex 25 watt.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antex-Solder...3D320450966437

I recieved my Minipulse Plus Kit from Silverdog ( Thanks Silverdog ) so i am trying to get what i need to do it right. I got a inductance / capcitance meter in the other day guess i have to start looking a ocilloscope next when i can.

[Qiaozhi]

One important point, that nobody has mentioned so far, is the ability to use lead-free solder. The Antex can do that.
Also, make sure you buy an Antex stand to go with it, otherwise where are you going to rest a hot soldering iron?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antex-ST4-So...item5ae8314de8

[Darin]

Thanks Qiaozhi, was going to use the holder on my helping hands but think i will just order the Antex xs 25 kit so i get the iron and stand.

Something i did not think about untill looking at solder was there are so many different sizes. I would think smaller would work better but what size do you recommend i use with this iron on PCBs ?

[sinclairuser]

i was thinking some more about this today and did a little search on the net.
a quick and dirty way to drop 40-50w irons is by adding a lamp switch with a 4007 1000v 1w diode on the positive side,.

you can also add a lamp dimmer too, using a temp probe with this you could build your own adjustable soldering iron, if you start with an 80w and add a dimmer switch, you can find the temp scale with a thermocouple, build it all in a box and you have a ghetto adjustable iron
of course this is not ideal but not everyone has the money or opportunity to buy a soldering station there are parts of the world where this info would be invaluable.
aly.

p.s. a tip for mini pulse with its small pads is to solder from the top of the board where you can , it has good vias resistors and diodes can be done that way if your new to soldering it can make it a bit easier.

[Qiaozhi]

Thanks Qiaozhi, was going to use the holder on my helping hands but think i will just order the Antex xs 25 kit so i get the iron and stand.

Something i did not think about untill looking at solder was there are so many different sizes. I would think smaller would work better but what size do you recommend i use with this iron on PCBs ?

I would recommend using 0.7mm for this type of work. If you're soldering onto stripboard, then 1mm is ok.

[Qiaozhi]

p.s. a tip for mini pulse with its small pads is to solder from the top of the board where you can , it has good vias resistors and diodes can be done that way if your new to soldering it can make it a bit easier.

I increased the size of the pads for REV-D (following your previous feedback).

[sinclairuser]

I increased the size of the pads for REV-D (following your previous feedback).

thanks george, i did not realise please accept my appology.
aly