Originally Posted by
Dave H
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.
