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Soldering iron and tips

C

carlsson

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Messages
6,274
Location
Västerås, Sweden
vbriel said:
Biggest beginner mistake is applying solder to iron.
Click to expand...
Yep, I also know to heat the post first, then carefully apply the solder. Maybe if I bought myself a new iron with fine tip.. is temperature control a luxury or a neccessity?

This topic originated in the Apple 8-bit subforum, but since the discussion moved on to soldering in general, I thought to move it to a proper area.
 
i think the best advice is to keep practicing on stuff you don't care about and try out different things.

for example, i found that you can 'draw' solder along with the iron, if you move the iron at the right speed etc..

chris
 
If I file the tip clean, but as soon as I handle solder, it sticks and grows dirty, is that a sign the tip should be replaced, or the whole iron? As I wrote in the other thread, the one I use appears to cool down a bit from time to time, so solder won't melt properly and it gets difficult to use it. A new 15W iron doesn't cost more than 40 SEK (~5 USD), add 50 cent for a 30W. Maybe add a stand and some solder suction pump too...
 
Do you have have a wet sponge nearby to clean the hot tip? You should use this while soldering and then when you are done to keep the tip shiny.

Cheers,

80sFreak
 
Terry Yager said:
Real hackerz just wipe the tip off on the Levi's they're wearing at the time (ouch!).

--T
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Yeah, I have a few "custom" pair of Levi's. A wet sponge is a good idea. Get it almost dripping. If you have a freshly filed down tip, heat it up, tin it with solder, wipe it clean with wet sponge.

Vince
 
No, not a dripping wet sponge- it will cool the tip too much. Get it wet, then squeeze it out. The only reason for the water is to keep the sponge from getting burnt. The reason you use a sponge at all is to clean the crud off the iron's tip, which would act like a thermal insulator and make soldering difficult. Don't use just any old sponge- you should use the kind made for soldering irons (some synthetic types will melt). In a pinch, wet (squeezed out) cotton cloth works well too (Levis are OK, but no synthetics). In the field, I often just use a wet paper towell.

"Wetting" the tip with a little solder (not water) will help conduct heat to the items being joined, and you'll be able to make the joint much more quickly than with an unwetted tip.

And one does not use a file on modern soldering iron tips- you would remove the cladding (usually steel but sometimes gold) and the tip would rapidly become corroded and useless. Just use a sponge. Soldering GUN tips can be filed because there's no cladding, but what the heck are you doing using a soldering gun on a computer?

vbriel said:
... A wet sponge is a good idea. Get it almost dripping. If you have a freshly filed down tip, heat it up, tin it with solder, wipe it clean with wet sponge.

Vince
Click to expand...
 
My iron is probably 15 years old or more. :) But I appreciate all the good advice. Still noone answered the question whether temperature control is a luxury only for professional users - those solder stations are radically more expensive than a simple iron.
 
At work I use a Weller temperature controlled (non-adjustable) solder station. You can leave it on all day long without worrying about burning up the tip.

At home I use an Ungar 33-watt pencil iron with a needle tip. I think it's just a bit overpowered, probably should have gotten a 15 or 20 watt.

For my purposes, I don't need a temp controlled iron at home.

Be aware, there is a (my opinion) poorly designed temp controlled iron that has a hollow tip that the temp sensor fits into. If you don't at least loosen the tip after every use, the sensor becomes stuck and will have to be replaced when you replace the tip as it won't come apart without destroying the sensor. The Weller solder station that I use has a spring-loaded sensor that presses against the backside of the tip. Even after much use and neglect the tip will come out without damage to the sensor.

Kent
 
There are a couple of good reasons to have some kind of temperature control: If your iron is too hot, you can too easily cause the traces on PC boards to come unstuck from the substrate and lift up. You can also damage ICs and other components if you apply too much heat. Reducing the temperature will help avoid that. Also, if you only use the iron intermittently throughout the day, you can reduce the heat to a "standby" temperature when not using it. This will prolong the life of the tip and heating element, but will allow you to quickly bring it back up to full temp, a lot faster than if you had completely turned it off.

Always keep the tip coated with a blob of solder when it's idling- this helps prevent oxidation and corrosion. Then sponge it off when ready to solder another joint.

If your iron is like most simple "stand-alone" types, it has a resistive heating element that is driven directly from the AC wall outlet, with no transformers or electronics in the circuit. Essentially, your soldering iron is just a dim light bulb, and an easy way to adjust its temperature is, therefore, a common cheap light dimmer. I know of none that can't handle even the largest of soldering irons. You can pick one up at any home improvement store. You can use a Variac to throttle the voltage, too, but that can be expensive and bulky.

Of course, a real soldering station will probably have temperature sensors and feedback circuits that will maintain the desired tip temp no matter what load you put on it. A light dimmer won't do that, but it's still a useful attachment.

By the way, DimensionDude's Weller uses tips that have a metal slug in them that will attract a magnet. The slug attracts a magnetic switch within the barrel of the soldering iron, which causes current to flow and the tip to heat. When the slug reaches its "Curie point", it will no longer attract the magnetic switch, so the current is turned off and the tip cools. As it cools, it will again attract the magnet and the process repeats. Tips are marked for different temps, and each has an alloy slug whose Curie point is the specified temperature. You change the temperature of these soldering stations only by changing tips- there's no adjustment knob. An interesting experiment is to stick a Weller tip on a magnet and then heat the tip (not the magnet- heat can damage most magnets) with a flame. At the right temperature, the tip will fall away from the magnet.

carlsson said:
... Still noone answered the question whether temperature control is a luxury only for professional users - those solder stations are radically more expensive than a simple iron.
Click to expand...
 
Good point about the light dimmer for "idling down" the iron, thanks for reminding me. Before I got the current Weller solder station, I used a pencil iron and a variac. The replacement for that was an adustable Weller station that had the badly designed tip. I always loosened the tip retainer after use, but no one else did. Every time the tip was replaced, so was the temp sensor.

I don't worry about the fixed temp of the current Weller station, it's ready to solder within 15 seconds of being turned on.

However, for use on the production floor, I have a cordless (butane) iron. I think the name brand is Master Mechanic but it is obviously a Weller. Oddly enough it's Ungar Red. With the cordless I don't have to worry about finding a place to plug it in, people tripping over the cord, and since the production room temp is kept under 50 degrees F it gets hot enough to actually solder. Also, the "hot air" tip is unbeatable for heat shrink tubing.

Kent
 
I'm in agreement with DD here. Temp control at work (or other situation where it's left idling for long periods of time), and use the cheapo-type at home. If you're like me, you only use it at home for short-time, every once in awhile. I've recently 'upgraded' to a 25-watt Weller, after using the same two-dollar no-name iron for over fifteen years. I decided to reward myself with a 'better' iron, for all those years of sacrifice.

--T
 
DimensionDude-
We must have very similar soldering irons for field work. I have a "Portasol" butane iron (I think Weller/Cooper Tools may own them now). It beats the heck out of the rechargable battery types (like the Wahl IsoTip), and with the large assortment of tips, I can go from soldering itty-bitty stuff all the way up to large items that might otherwise require a soldering gun. There are also a hot knife tip, blow torch tip, and a hot air tip. I don't know about yours, DD, but mine also has an adjustable valve to control the tip temperature. These things are great. I would be lost without mine. They're not for production line work, but they're sure nice for quick jobs.
 
Radio Shack 15watts irons, I have had great luck with them. They tend not to burn their tip up. I have several copper tips, but usually use a steel cladded tip.
 
Thanks for the good advice. As I normally do solder work maybe twice a year (recently it has been a lot more, but now all cables seem to be working), I don't have needs for a tool that can keep the heat all day. Almost never I work on a circuit board, mostly connectors, cables and some simple components like a few diodes or resistors.
 
alltare,

My cordless iron is a Master Appliance from Grainger. It has all the tips you mentioned, has a temp control (throttle) and has a self-ignitor. Indeed, very handy for those quick jobs in out of the way places. It was also about $40 cheaper than the equivalent Weller.

Kent
 
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