Soldering Irons/Guns

[SkooterG]

Did my first foray into soldering last week. I know, I am a late bloomer.

I've read enough to understand the concepts behind proper soldering technique, but lack real-world experience. It was pretty ugly. I used the Rat-Shak soldering iron I had bought previously. Try as I may, I could not heat up the wire enough to melt the solder. After several minutes, I finally had to melt the solder onto the wire splice. I know that's not the proper technique, but the only way I could get it to work. I am blaming the P.O.S. Rat-shak soldering iron - a 15W version I believe.

So, whenever somebody dishes out advice, they say, "use a GOOD soldering iron/gun",

Well, what exactly is a 'GOOD' one, and where do I get it?

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

 

[El Toro]

A good soldering iron will have a selection of tips to allow you to customize the tip to job.

A good soldering iron will have enough wattage to warm up the workpiece so that you don't have to melt the solder and pray that it flows well into the cold joint.

You can get a decent one at Lowes, or Radio Shack, or probaby even Wal-Mart. My KMC has a wattage rating of 100 watts, and it is adequate for just about any wiring task, and many other small part tasks as well. If I want to braze or use silver solder, I may switch over to a mini torch, or even a regular propane torch (more for plumbing level work).

 

[HotRodZilla]

Wow! A 15W soldering iron is probably only good for putting your eye out...Very slowly. Most good irons start around 25W and go up past 60W. I'm sure there are hotter irons out there, but I've never needed one. I got my iron from my dad years ago and it is probably 30 years old and works great. Bitch is: I can't remember the brand. I am betting the internet is your friend. All the DIY stores: Home Depot, Lowes, Sears should have good ones. If you buy from one of them and it doesn't work to your liking, you can take it back.

 

[Fencer]

RS has some good ones, but dont get the pen type, which I am guessing is what you got. they don't get hot enough.

compare packages and get the one with the most watts avail. A dual temp is better. I got one from the shack a few years ago for around $35. Also find one with a fast heat-up rate. This is one of those things with the more you spend the better it is.

Don't get the ones from Harbor Freight either. I tried one in a "get by" mode and it lasted - Oh about 30 min, which then set me farther back.

 

[twowheelnut]

Keep the tip clean. Even good ones suck if the tip is all shmuts.

 

[El Toro]

Keep the tip clean. Even good ones suck if the tip is all shmuts.

Technically, you're supposed to condition the tip. Most people don't. On a 15W iron, it probably doesn't matter.

 

[odot]

Keep the tip klean? Even the good ones suck? What the **** are we talking aboot here?

sick *****.

 

[Bustanut joker]

15 watts???? What ya soldering hair? Wuss, Get a mans gun. The weller D550 is my choice. 240 to 325 watts 'o' power. Ya can melt lead billet with that bugger.

:jester:

 

[Thumperbike]

35 watt minimum, and cheapies do work fine. As stated, clean and tin the tip. Use a wet sponge or paper towel and wipe the hot tip, then apply the solder to the tip and wipe again with the sponge until the tip is coated with a solder film (tinned). I apply solder to the tip before touching the wire for maximum heat transfer because the longer you stay on the wire, the more insulation is melted. You can also use the wet sponge to cool the wires after the solder sets to reduce insulation meltage.

 

[twowheelnut]

Technically, you're supposed to condition the tip. Most people don't. On a 15W iron, it probably doesn't matter.

Details. Vhat you vant to drive me faqhadik?

Keep the tip klean? Even the good ones suck? What the **** are we talking aboot here?



sick *****.

Left you another one, perv.

 

[odot]

fodder for the goose? klown.

 

[skifrik]

I've been doing avionics for over 25 years and I use the portable butane kind. And use a wet sponge to clean the tip.

 

[jekirby]

For several years in my past I worked at a local appliance and electronics chain as a car audio installer in an attempt to put myself through school. I bought one of these. I lost on and replaced it with another. I really like it. The smallest tip is almost small enough to work on pcb's in a pinch. Hot knife, torch, heat gun and assorted tips. The tips don't burn out like the other, smaller, catalytic converter type soldering irons.

Oh and conditoning the tip is called tinning. You heat up the tip (hang on guys, there may be a lot of joke fodder here), clean it with the wet sponge or wet cotton rag, apply soldier to the tip and cleaning off the excess with the aforementioned sponge or cloth. To me what is seems to do is allow the soldier to flow into the heated connection and not stick to the tip.

 

[slapnpop]

*referencing electrical, not plumbing*

I've done a *lot* of soldering in the past ~6 years, from large 8 gauge connections down to 0603 side PCB assembly.

There are two good kinds of irons to have, depending on what your doing. The portable butane as skifrik mentioned is great for doing vehicle wire connections, and odd repair type jobs where extension cords are a pain.

If you're doing more of an bench job or electronics type solding, get either a Hakko 936 Retails for ~$95, but it's the last soldering iron you'll ever buy. Also, this tip cleaner is the greatest thing since sliced bread! It cleans the tip of the iron without using a water, so you don't lose temperature.

Just as important is the solder you are using. You can't buy your solder from the plumbing section. You need to get electrical specific solder with the flux in it. Flux is the stuff that makes the solder wick. If you have a flux-free solder, the solder ball will melt and just stick to the iron, never flowing onto your part. This will also happen when you're trying to "re-flow" a piece of solder already in place (to do this, add just a small amount of new solder and the fresh flux will go to work).

Oh, and guns are useless. Forget they exist. The same goes for Radioshack. That place is worthless, and the stuff they sell even more so.

 

[Rickster]

Something I do for home use, is make an outlet box with a dimmer switch:

like this:

Now you can control the temperature without an expensive soldering station.

 

[v65]

I've been considering adding a soldering gun to my bikes toolkit. Any suggestions for a small quality butane iron?

 

[C&C]

I'm sure there are plenty of good ones out there but Weller comes to mine. I have an old Weller Junior that I've had for years, and except for big projects, does great for normal sized wires. Keeping the tip clean and well tinned goes a long way in utilizing all the heat that the gun or pen can provide.

 

[Bounce]

It's too hot for electronics, but the Blazer Microtorch that I use for lighting cigars is great at it's primary job of soldering too.

 

[ionbeam]

What kind of solder iron you need depends on what you want to do with it. If you are going to solder small components on a circuit board or solder wires smaller than 16 ga then a 25 watt iron would have enough power for the tasks. If you are going to solder larger gauge wires I would suggest an iron in the 35-75 watt range. Ideally the iron would accept at least two types of tips, a small pointed tip for fine work and a larger broad tip for bigger jobs. Solder irons with small pointy tips do not have enough thermal mass to handle larger gauge wire because the wire will wick away heat preventing the tip from achieving full temperature. This situation will let the wire insulation melt before the wire gets hot enough to flow solder. A larger tip will retain enough heat to quickly get the wire hot before the insulation overheats.

Depending on the lead/tin ratio solder will melt between 360° and 400°, most solder iron tips are capable of reaching 800-900° but the work you are soldering will draw away a lot of heat leaving the solder iron tip close to the actual solder melting point. If the wire is big, like 8 ga it may wick away so much heat that the tip will never reach the melting point of the solder.

The solder you use should be either 60/40 or 63/37, the ratio of lead & tin. The 63/37 solder has the lowest possible melting point (eutectic mixture). The solder should also contain a resin flux (resin core). If the solder does not contain flux you will need to buy resin flux and paint the parts to be joined. The flux breaks surface oxidation and lets the solder flow over the parts and prevents solder balling. Never use acid flux like you would buy for sweating pipes, over time the acid will attack and corrode the parts. Solder comes in a variety of wire sizes; for motorcycle use .040 to .062 dia will be the most useful.

You should heat the wire or circuit then touch the wire or circuit with the solder instead of the solder iron tip. The tip should remain shiny to work best; this is normally done by wiping the tip on a wet sponge though Slappy’s tip cleaner works well too.

For most of the work you would be doing on a motorcycle this solder iron from Grainger would work just fine: