Soldering Iron Questions (temp, tip, maintenance, etc...)
12-26-2005, 11:21 AM
#16
60w and 100w Goot with medium tip. 3 years old.
12-26-2005, 12:17 PM
#17
Tech Fanatic
Goot! now there's another high quality iron.I have one of these also that I use for traveling it works extremely well.Even with a smaller tip it gets up to over 1000 degree's
12-26-2005, 12:51 PM
#18
For ALL R/C related work you want a good chisel / screwdriver type tip. When I see folks at the track using the rounded / pointy tip I just wanna cry. By using a flat tip you transfer the heat much faster to the joint through sheer surface area. Using the rounded side of a pointy tip makes you have to hold the iron forever due to lack of surface area and you risk destroying your equipment due to overheating.
Also...ALWAYS USE FLUX!!!!! For the life of me so many in the RC world seem to of never heard of flux. They'll say that the solder has some in it...so what!?!? You NEED to brush a light coating of flux onto each part to be soldered to ensure a good hot-joint. I know....as I was a crewcheif on CH-46E helicopters while in the USMC. I've soldered and worked on plenty of avionics boxes and was trained to do it right.
DEFINITIONS:
Hot-Joint : When solder has completely flowed though both wires and between both surfaces. A hot-joint will always have a very smooth and shiny appearance after soldering and the parts will be strongly joined together. Hot-joints have the best possible electrical conductivity and are extremely strong.
Cold-Joint : When the solder doesn't completely flow between the two surfaces. Typical cold joints on a wire only have solder on one side and visible braid is still seen on the other. Cold joints typically are very chunky and dirty looking plus the luster of the solder is like that of a flat silver. Not using flux and a high enough temperature is the #1 reason for cold-joints. Cold joints have horrible conductivity and are not very strong.
If you need to hold your iron to make a joint for more than 1-2 seconds, you are not using a high enough temperature or the wrong tip...or both.
-Sean
Also...ALWAYS USE FLUX!!!!! For the life of me so many in the RC world seem to of never heard of flux. They'll say that the solder has some in it...so what!?!? You NEED to brush a light coating of flux onto each part to be soldered to ensure a good hot-joint. I know....as I was a crewcheif on CH-46E helicopters while in the USMC. I've soldered and worked on plenty of avionics boxes and was trained to do it right.
DEFINITIONS:
Hot-Joint : When solder has completely flowed though both wires and between both surfaces. A hot-joint will always have a very smooth and shiny appearance after soldering and the parts will be strongly joined together. Hot-joints have the best possible electrical conductivity and are extremely strong.
Cold-Joint : When the solder doesn't completely flow between the two surfaces. Typical cold joints on a wire only have solder on one side and visible braid is still seen on the other. Cold joints typically are very chunky and dirty looking plus the luster of the solder is like that of a flat silver. Not using flux and a high enough temperature is the #1 reason for cold-joints. Cold joints have horrible conductivity and are not very strong.
If you need to hold your iron to make a joint for more than 1-2 seconds, you are not using a high enough temperature or the wrong tip...or both.
-Sean
12-27-2005, 01:18 PM
#20
Originally Posted by burbs
One of the best irons ive ever used is an orange weller 40 watt.
Originally Posted by Hyper1
weller wc200 I think that works great on batteries,it has a huge tip and plenty of power, 90 watts I think,it is great but really only good for batteries.
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