And if you din't know, Marine Corps Birthday is Nov 10th as well. :cool:

Thanks Marine! I actually ended up ordering the Hakko 936 from Amain last night since I had a credit from them I had forgotten about. I thought of a couple of other places to check for the solder and flux so I will look there this weekend and if nothing turns up I will just buy online.

Thanks again and good day to you!!

I want a good iron but not too fond of spending $80 if I don't have to. Someone suggested this iron on our local forum. http://http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7508. What do you think? He says he has owned for about 5 years and has never had to replace the tip. And he uses it for work as well as at the track. Thanks for the awesome tutorial.

Looks to be a decent iron.

I suggest the 3.2 or 4mm tip for ESC and connector soldering jobs.

Added this iron to the first post as well.

Thanks Marine. I'm going to order it next week as well as some extra tips just incase. Thanks again for such an awesome write-up.

Marine can you suggest a good place to get the liquid rma flux in a smaller quantity? All I'm finding is the pens and gallon sizes of flux. I did find a 2oz. Tub of rma paste flux. Is that stuff any good or is the liquid better? Here is the link http://www.frys.com/product/6479492

I get mine from work. :lol: So I have to search online just like you.

Paste flux works very well.

Gotcha. I will just get the paste then. It's less likely to make a mess anyway in my trailer while I'm riding down the road LOL.

They quit making the station I was going to order so I called them and they recommended this one same iron and holder and it's supposed a better unit so I will report back and let everyone know what I think of it. I need to shorten my servo leads and rewire a starter box so I will have a variety of work to do with it.
Here is the link http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9747

Sounds good.

Thanks for the well written information.

I am about to order some 63/37 solder and they come in different thicknesses. You mentioned buying the thinnest (I can only get one) which is .6mm. They also have .8 and 1.0.

Seems pretty thin, for 1/8 scale car and 450 class heli soldering would a .8 be more ideal?

Thanks again,

j

Circuitspecialists.com have it down to .4mm I think

I would buy both, if I could, but if forced I would buy thin. You can fold the thin stuff together to make a thicker strand. That way you can have thin for small stuff and still solder larger.

I haven't read all of this thread but there is one thing I couldn't see mentioned and that's the size of the bit/iron is more important than the power of the iron.

When you apply the iron to the workpiece the workpiece cools the bit. If the bit has too little thermal mass the temperature will drop a lot and it's very unlikely the heating element in the iron can compensate and reheat the iron fast enough. An iron with twice the copper mass is usually better than one with twice the wattage (although obviously they go hand in hand to some extent).

Thats what thermal recovery is for, ceramic elements are lower wattage but heat faster. That is why you need a good iron. A bigger tip holds heat better and do not drop as many degrees when using it. So it is important to use the right size tip.

I will go through the post and make a note of it if it is not in there.