I know that a better soldering iron would be perfered, but my weller soldering tips keep "pitting" and "chunking" away. I try to keep it clean with a wet spounge and tin it regularly..Is it the solder? or are they just gonna need replacing often. I do plan on a soldering station at some point, but I think Im doing something wrong. Any help would be great.

Thanks

how many watts is the iron? is it fully melting the solder? for rc use i strongly recommend a 60w or higher

Not all tips are created equal..The tip in my Hakko is 2 years old and looks new.

Had the cheap $14-$15 40+/- watt Weller iron and the tips did not last. Even a few days of use and the tips would begin to self destruct. I've had several higher dollar/quality irons and there's just no comparison.

It's very normal for the Weller tips to blow chunks regardless of how well you treat them.

New tips are pricey at two for $10-12. A new iron is only $16. I still use my Weller but only as a back up track iron. The one I use the most is my Hakko and it's about 5 years old using the original tip.

I have to agree with the others on the Hakko. I have had a few cheaper soldering units in the past for auto work not thinking much about them. The tips wore out, I thought that was normal . Then I bought my Hakko and kicked myself for not getting something like it decades earlier.

You can get an 888 from ebay for under $90. You can't even try to compare it to cheaper Weller, Radio Shack, etc units. Mine has seen lots of usage at work and the tip still looks brand new also. I did buy a wider chisel tip for soldering battery connections, but so far that's it. I will definitely be buying more of that brass brillo pad stuff for tip cleaning when I need it. That works awesome as well. I highly recommend just biting the bullet if you are getting frustrated with your other unit.

If you need to wait a bit to get a Hakko, but another tip for your current unit now and start saving for the Hakko which should last you a good long time. I'd be willing to bet that if you do a lot of soldering, that in the long run, the Hakko would be cheaper than buying a bunch of replacement tips. My Radio Shack ones were $15.

It helps to use something like the Radio Shack tip tinner/cleaner, but that only prolongs the inevitable.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062721

Buy a Hakko 936. You'll be glad you did.

Ya. I kinda thought so guys..it's on the Christmas list

If you get the Hakko, be sure to get the bigger 5mm chisel tip. It's a much better all purpose tip.

you guys kill me. I've had the same $12 radio shack iron and tip for 15 years. you don't need some damn $100 soldering iron.

well thats good news..care to guess at what im doing wrong?..Ive gone through the ace hardware, radioshack, and sears irons..Irons seem ok and work great when there new, the tips just start to get holes, and slowly chew up..Better solder?

Honestly, the Weller 40W iron is really a good iron but the tips do crater especially if you leave them on for an extended time. Cleaning the tip and tinning it helps prolong the tip's life as long as you unplug the iron and not let it stay on for more than a few minutes at a time.

You can get replacement tips at ACE Hardware for $10 for two tips.

Take good care of it because it's not likely your 15 year old iron is of the same craptastic quality as the current low dollar ones.

How long does it take you to solder say a 14 to 12g wire? Reason I ask is I probably bought the same or very similar iron around 25 years ago. Wasn't too bad on smaller stuff, but I never had much success with larger wires, took too long, which transfers too much heat into components, even using flux, not good. Fairly quickly upgrading to a more powerful thermo controlled and adjustable station like a Hakko was one of my best investments. Just my experience, your mileage may vary.


For the OP, another vote for the Hakko, with a good sized chisel tip as CarbonJoe mentioned. Maybe a smaller tip too if you might do any circuit board type stuff.

my point in bold.

I've had several people ask me about soldering, some looking at my stuff and asking "how do you get your joints so shiny". My first question is always, "do you use flux". Almost all having issues say "no, rosin core solder has flux in it". I simply and then explain the added value of using an additional paste flux.

Preach it! Proper flux makes it so much easier (not plumbers!). To add it’s very important to not let the joint move after. Something a proper iron again helps with, as there isn’t a bunch of transferred heat preventing the joint from cooling off quickly. If the joint doesn’t solidify quickly it’s more likely to be a poor quality connection.

Better yet everybody should check out the excellent sticky at the top of this section.