soldering iron advice

[Lyle Spiegel]

Im thinking of getting soldering iron. not sure how many watts I need. Primary application. Would be light electrical for wirIng plugs, etc. Then thinking I could use for making up a tank or fixing leaking tank. Would appreciate any advice. Something from harbor freight or is that junk? Thx .

[Brett Buck]

Im thinking of getting soldering iron. not sure how many watts I need. Primary application. Would be light electrical for wirIng plugs, etc. Then thinking I could use for making up a tank or fixing leaking tank. Would appreciate any advice. Something from harbor freight or is that junk? Thx .

  I have this for electronics:

http://www.all-spec.com/products/Weller/Soldering_and_Rework|Soldering.Rework_Equipment|SOL-10/WTCPT.html

  Although if I didn't have that already, I would get this one:

http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/hakko/soldering-systems/fx888d.htm?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Hakko&utm_term=hakko%20fx888d%20soldering%20station.

    It's adequate for both point-to-point wiring and for PWB ("pc board") soldering. Neither will handle SMT parts very well. In a pinch, it's adequate for tank repairs, but of that is what you want, then I would suggest this instead:

   http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/weller/solderandheatguns/d550.htm

     The high power and low tip mass helps you get the solder *water thin* without having to heat up the entire tank in the process. It would be adequate for point-to-point electronics but forget it for PWB electronics.

   Brett


   

[Eric Viglione]

I also vote for the Hakko for delicate work, not sure about tanks, but it's great working on PCB's... I've used the typical Weller solder stations over the years, and the Hakko in a production environment. Hakko wins for me, hands down.

Ended up getting a couple Hakko 927's for myself from a local outfit that shut down a few years back. I had to come up with a circuit hack to disable the supervisor lockout card swipe... Just removed P2 from the scanner board(They evidently didn't like the employee's changing the irons digital temp without the supervisors permission. Gotta luv quality control)

But that was easy enough to disable. I gave the second one to a friend, and did the same hack to that one before passing it on.

The Hakko unit is extremely accurate, without overshooting temp on initial warm up, and maintaining temp without a sine wave of over-under shoots.

EricV

[Howard Rush]

I have the same Weller WTCPT as Brett.  It cools off and the tip has to be whacked to get it to heat up again.  Cleaning it and changing tips didn't seem to help. 

I see from the Hakko site that the 927 was replaced by the 937, which was replaced by the FX-888D.  I'll get me one.  You can always count on good advice from Brett and Eric. 

Won't handle SMT very well you say,
But it's through-hole for me
And my ball grid array.

[Eric Viglione]

Good choice Howard, and Hakko's customer service is quite good long after the sale, sometimes even after the warranty expires.

Rare a tube amp SMT
Through-hole may be cool for thee
But it's P2P for me

EricV

[Brett Buck]

I have the same Weller WTCPT as Brett.  It cools off and the tip has to be whacked to get it to heat up again.  Cleaning it and changing tips didn't seem to help. 

   Mine never had that problem. All the active parts are in the tip, so I would suspect something intermittent in the wire, since changing tips doesn't fix it.

    I have probably thousands of hours on mine. I do far more soldering than modeling these days - and unfortunately, very little of either in the last 6 months.

    Brett

[Tim Wescott]

I have the same Weller WTCPT as Brett.  It cools off and the tip has to be whacked to get it to heat up again.  Cleaning it and changing tips didn't seem to help.

  Mine never had that problem. All the active parts are in the tip, so I would suspect something intermittent in the wire, since changing tips doesn't fix it.

I see that my calendar has the '30' in purple, so I guess it's a "disagree with Brett Buck" day.

• The active parts are not all in the tip, or at least not the very tip.  The "active part" is a switch in the handle with a magnet.  The tip is made out of an iron alloy with a calibrated Curie temperature -- when it's cool it attracts the magnet and the switch closes; when it's hot it loses it's ferromagnetic properties and the magnet falls away.  I had Howard's problem with mine -- I ended up buying a new handle from Mouser for a lot less than a new iron, but you can open it up and try reworking the switch if you want.  I was tempted to rework the thing to run low current through the switch with a honkin' big relay in the base.  I resisted.
• Moreover, the WTCPT is a great iron for reworking and building surface mount boards, if you use a fine-point tip.  About the only thing you can't do with it directly is solder fine pitch (0.5mm) parts, flip-chips, and leadless chip carriers.  For fine-pitch parts you just solder all the pins down in one solid mass and then come back with solder wick and pick up the excess.  For the other two you learn how to do reflow of some sort.  If you don't think it works -- look at Howard's TUT boards; that's how they were done, except for the gyro, which is leadless.
• For reflow, SparkFun electronics has a hot air rework station for $99.  It has quirks, but for $99 they can be put up with.  And, Goodwill has electric skillets for $5.  You can get a solder stencil for a few bucks, and you can get solder paste cheap.  Stencil solder on, stick on components, set the thing in the skillet, turn it on, and wait until all the solder is melted.  The temperature profile isn't perfect, but it seems to work so far.

[Ara Dedekian]

      Hello Lyle

           Soldering tanks.
           A 55 watt pencil type soldering iron has the power for making/repairing tanks. I've had one for years that wore out and haven't been able to find an inexpensive replacement. 40 watts was the highest I could find. My ancient Weller D550 works well, but is heavy and doesn't produce professional looking seams.

           What I use is a jewelers brazing torch left over from my dental laboratory days. They were used to braze sections of  dental bridgework together. It's a bit of a stretch for the average modeler but some of you may be set up to use one. It's an oxy/propane setup which produces a tiny flame to ~2700 F with the largest of five tips. Once a technique is developed, it's quite easy to control. With the flame held out at the proper distance, the solder just disappears under the seam without any excess. It's easy to dissasemble a tank with one also.

            I keep a separate 25 watt iron for wires.

            Pictures to follow (I hope!)

     Ara       

[Ara Dedekian]

     Pictures of brazing torch and profile fuel tank.


      Ara

[Ara Dedekian]

       While we're on the subject of soldering wires ......

        Ara

[Bill Johnson]

      Hello Lyle

           Soldering tanks.
           A 55 watt pencil type soldering iron has the power for making/repairing tanks. I've had one for years that wore out and haven't been able to find an inexpensive replacement.      Ara  

Go up 5 watts to 60 and there's many on the market for $10-$15.