Nigel Goodwin

I would suggest Antex irons Mark, I've been using them for years - and temperature control is well worth it.

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audioguru

I have used a temperature controlled Weller soldering iron all my career. Then I needed to solder some things on a job site using their el-cheapo soldering iron.

It was way too hot! The tip was burnt and not tinned due to the high heat and the rosin flux in the solder instantly vapourized and did not do its wetting and cleaning job. It made very poor solder joints.

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Uncle $crooge

Fenris

hi all

just my 2 penneth. i have just got back into the hobby
and equipped myself with a pen tip 25W iron, solder sucker
and a helping hands. so what was my problem???????
that awful rohs leadless solder its absolutely pants.
i got a 500Kg reel of 22swg. Solder content: 50% tin,
1.4% copper, 48.6% lead. ahhhhhh havent had a dry joint,
or delamination since. probably all in the technique but
the new stuff is just screaming 'LET ME HELP FRY YOUR
COMPONENTS' so as far as im concerned avoid it!
im with the chaps here; clean the tip, tin the tip, and solder.

regards

Fenris

Pommie

That half a tonne of solder should last you a long time.

Mike.

audioguru

Wasn't 50:50 solder for plumbing?
With an acid core?
It needs a blow torch to melt it?

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Uncle $crooge

mvs sarma

After Pb free ruling has come out, perhaps it may be difficult to get 60/40 resin cored solder unless one has in stock with his hobby kit. We are yet to experience this problem. I am rather interested to know how our members fared with lead free soldering at home front.

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Regards,
Sarma.

dknguyen

I'm uber OCD paranoid about lead. (ie. I wash my tools and my hands, as well as anything they have touched. I also wash the things that those things have touched and the things that those other things have touched, etc.). But I switched back because I destroyed more PCBs with Lead-free solder. It's also way harder to work with and even harder to fix mistakes on. I have much better equipment now, but haven't tried it with lead-free.

If you are on mass production levels where lots of toxic waste is generated, but also have the resources for repeatable, fine tuned process control then sure it's great. But I've found that at home, I make more waste (and waste more time and money) from destroyed boards of Lead-free solder than if I just used leaded solder.

mvs sarma

Thanks for the info. I was told that it is a difficult task and getting cofirmed by experts with 1st hand experience.
thanks, Dknguyen.

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Regards,
Sarma.

dknguyen

I still use lead-free though on big things large wires to contacts (just not on tiny PCB things) because there is a lot more exposed solder there, lead-free can take higher temperatures, heat damage does not matter as much, and it's larger so it's much easier to just go overboard on the heat to get it to work.

Wingmax

Usually doesn't take long to gain experience in solding and become good at it, and when you do, you probably find that it's the easiest thing in Electronics work. whether in design or trouble shooting.

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blueroomelectronics

I enjoy soldering too, it's not difficult when you get the hang of it.

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Torben

Yep, me too. I enjoy the design phase but I also look forward to building. Although I'm glad I only do one-offs since I'm not a big fan of drilling the holes (although the drill press helps).

Now I'm also learning to weld. Makes soldering seem like cake.


Torben

dknguyen

Yeah...I'm sometimes afraid to step into the building phase because that's when you start spending money and the mistakes you make are "hard" mistakes and not "soft" mistakes.

UTMonkey

Nigel, It's an Antex iron I am using (18w).

No temperature contol on this one. I think I definitely need that one for my next iron as I have already melted the plastic casings of some components.

Hank Fletcher

I saw in the Canadian Tire here they have a Haynes manual on welding. Anyone used it? It looked pretty handy, I'm thinking about picking it up.

I've heard welding aluminum is a pain (low melting point, oxidizes easily). Anyone had any experiences along those lines?