Time for a new soldering iron - recommendations?

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10/9/2000 8:39 PM

DanF

Time for a new soldering iron - recommendations? It's time for a new, good soldering iron. I'm building and restoring amps, weekends mainly (for my own use - not high production). I'm looking in the Mouser catalog at soldering irons and it shows several butane and cordless models. I've never seen or used these. Does anyone have any experinece with them, or recommendations for soldering irons of any kind - with cord, without cord, butane, anything? Thanks - Dan

 

10/10/2000 3:30 AM
Jeremy	I love my HAKKO soldering station. It's a model 936. You can get one here for $99... it's where I got mine.   http://www.savon-electronics.com/hakko.htm     -Jeremy

 

10/10/2000 4:45 AM
Troy	DanF: Hi Dan, I got a Radio Shack flyer the other day that had a Weller station on sale. I can't remember the model # (sorry), but it was not the economy red colored station but a nicer (light blue color) Weller. I think it was $50.00 and I ordered one last time www.radioshack.com had it on sale. It's an excellent station!     Troy

 

10/10/2000 5:34 PM
Liam	I just got one of the blue ones on ebay (they're a bit more expensive here in the UK). It's a Weller PS3D with a TCP 45 watt/24volt iron. I'm very pleased with it. It's the same as I use at work. V. high quality stuff.

 

10/10/2000 2:09 PM
steve m.	Jeremy,     I have one of the 936s, too, but I've never been able to get it solder well. How do you have yours set up?     TIA,     Steve

 

10/10/2000 7:20 PM

MBSetzer

The butane iron I would not want to use as a primary assembly tool.     I like it a lot, but it is really for convenience away from the bench when you need heat within seconds without waiting for an electric iron to warm up, or in a situation where you don't want to run an extension cord, like for minor car stereo wiring. For doing the full car thing I still use an extension cord and regular iron.     Also for a regular iron I just use a 25watt Radio Shack cheapie with the screw-in tips (when I can't find the near exact equivalent even cheaper), it ends up at a very good temperature for point-to-point or eyelets without having to have a temp-controlled station. In use that is, at idle I assume it reaches a bit of overtemperature since the tip oxidizes a bit faster than I would like, but I am always rinsing the tip with molten solder to displace the oxidized stuff. This also tends to dissolve the tips faster than you would want in a production environment. I keep a few tips & irons in various conditions, reserving the new one for delicate work like IC removal.     Right now my main iron is Wall Lenk Corp. model L25, it fits the Radio Shack tips. IIRC it was brand new in the package with a batch of surplus junk, so may be a decade or two old, these exact ones may not be available any more or maybe not still made in USA like this one. It says Kinston, NC 28501 so that must be where the company is.

 

10/10/2000 8:25 PM
Jeremy	I use the 2.4 MM chisel tip, at 700 deg. F. The trick is to keep the tip clean and retin it after it has sat in the holder for more than a few minutes.

 

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