soldering iron???
 

i have bought a 80 watt soldering iron, and i was woundering if that is too hot for soldering batteries together and soldering wires together?

if it is too hot what wattage should i be getting, 40W 60W?

you should take 60W that's too powerful for your batteries and wires. for wires you should get a 30W.

I don't see how the soldering iron can be too powerful. With a bigger iron you just have to take a bit more care not to overheat the cells, but it will get the solder melted so quickly that you won't need to hold it on the cells long anyway. Same with wiring, more power just means more speed. The standard tip on an 80W iron may be a bit on the large side for most RC use though.

True sodsidge. My iron is 120W:eek:

An 80W with a med/big tip is PERFECT for assembling battery packs. Quick-n-easy and like sosidge said, less chance of heat saturation.

BUT a big tip may not be the best for wires and solder posts. a 40W-up w/ a small/med tip is better. less chance of burning esc cases and other surrounding items.

The hotter the iron the better, unless you get into the 1000W irons, you are more likely to burn up a circuit with a low watt iron because you will hold it there for days untill the solder melts, by that time the ceramic on the resistors is melted, the key to not burning up esc's, etc is to have a hot iron(+80W) and to not hold the iron on the board or battery for too long. I've rewired my novak GT7's at least 50X with a 120W. I use a pencil type tip for rewiring speedo's, hot wiring my car and a chisel tip for building batteries.

your all right. soldering iron is part of my job. its not only how it can melt the lead. . .

Yeah 80's fine, anything above 60 and under 120 is all good for batteries.
No way man 30 watts cant even melt solder!!!!

Don't even try to get one of those Hobbico or Radio Shack soldering irons. Those will last you only days. Wut I like bout the good quality soldering irons is that after you solder something...you can just wipe the solder on a wet sponge and the solder will just come right off. Just make sure the sponge is SOAKED because the sponge gets burned away slowly if you just have it moist. I found this really good soldering iron at my LHS for 40 bucks and it's wuz a Weller 40 watt. Seems pretty good compared to my 70 dollar Weller 60 watt. Also you can get a Radio Shack Soldering stand for like 6.99. :sneaky:

Hello,
Try www.wisecomponents.com if you are looking for a good Hakko soldering station. They seem to have the lowest price around.

Hello,
A good one is the Hakko 936-10 Soldering Station 908 Iron for $79.00.

I agree the Hakko 936 is a great soldering iron but why pay $80 for it when you can get one, with a different name on it for $35. Check out the specs on each iron, they are the same. If you are looking at the Hakko 936 go here instead, just make sure you get a big Hakko tip. Their biggest tip is still small.

Circuit Specialists

As some have already said, it won't hurt anything to have a powerful iron for soldering batteries & motors, but for light work(like soldering thigs onto a circuit board) I'd advise using a lower wattage iron, as the hotter ones can quickly damage small components & traces on the boards(traces are like wiring on a circuit board)....:cool: