Butane, Electric or Cold Heat?!

I think I know that cold heat is only good for a few situations but I heard that your "Radio Shack" style plug in 15w, 30w soldering irons are also bad at times because they have an electric charge that can damage IC's etc?

IS this true and then should I use butane irons etc for this job and are they any good and does anyone have any suggestions on make and manufacture of these types of guns?

Thank you greatly

Sincerely,

Kevin in Alaska

Cheers!

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ha, yes i think the electric ones do have a charge. i was soldering an led, with me holding one of the leds legs, and soldering the other, and it lit up!!!!

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A good quality electric iron is the best choice. They allow you to choose different tip sizes for more or less heat transfer, to set the tip temperature, and they have grounded tips for ESD protection. An example is the Weller WES51 or the Hakko 936-12.

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I just use a typical Solding Iron. 110 Volt, 30 watt type.
In all my life I have NEVER had any Problems.
Even the 30 watt Radio Shack ones are OK.
I keep one in my truck to use from my power inverter when needed.

Cold Soldering Irons are NOT Suitable for Electronics.

And Butane ones are Expensive to operate. But Good when you don't have Power available.

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You can get ESD safe soldering irons.. go search for them, they're out there - no problem there. Don't use the cold-heat methods, they don't work well.

 

I find the 40W radio shack irons perfectly fine for large work, IF you keep the tips tinned. They are not so good for fine work. I usually use it for soldering up speaker crossovers (12-18gauge type stuff). Tip variety is poor.

For electronics work, I would get something like a Weller iron with replaceable tips that is self-regulating to something like 700 degrees. I think the are $50.

I am REALLY trying to find a Hakko FX-951 stateside; although I'm glad I haven't since I would be tempted to buy it. Maybe I could talk work into getting one so I could try before I buy Our stations are old as can be anyway.

 

All soldering irons I've seen that run directly from the mains have earthed tips, it's a legal requirement!

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It certainly wasn't a legal requirement, but perhaps things have changed? - and certainly some high end irons, intended for CMOS working, couldn't be earthed to prevent static problems.

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I suppose if it's double insulated then the tip doesn't have to be earthed but I've never seen a double insulated iron before.

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From a while back.

An inexpensive yet quality soldering station

It is a temperature controlled station for under $50US. Also sold in the UK under other brand names.

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that's strange, why did the led light up? (in my first post in this thread) it didn't light very brightly, but it certainly did? why?????

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Doesn't make Sense unless you had a Grounded Tip and the Other side of the LED was connected to Something Supplying Power to it.

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Antex used to make special ceramic elemented ones for CMOS use.

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I have seen that happen too with the high efficiency LED's.
These seem to glow up a little, especially when a soldering gun is used, which has a double insulated 230 / 3 Volts transformer.
Probably something to do with leakage or possible capacitance between the soldering iron and the LED being soldered.
It however doesn't damage the LED.

I use for electronic projects a Dick Smith Electronics T 2000 soldering iron which has variable temp. control and 230 / 24 volts heater with exchangeable tips.
The tip is earhed and so is safe to use for CMOS IC's.

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Electricity, Electric clocks, Meters and Trains are great.

 

I've made a white LED light by holding one end and touching the other end on a radiator.

I was acting as an aerial picking up electrical noise, the LED was acting as a rectifier and glowing and the ratiator was acting as an earth.

I suspect that exactly the same thing is happening here.

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