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Thread: Soldering station debate Reply to Thread

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[QUOTE=Lazy Ace;2793866]As you can see the size of the tip is as important as the wattage of the heating element. I the tip is too small to hold a constant heat the job will wick away enough heat to either cause a poor/cold solder joint or having to leave the iron on the joint for too long causing overheating of the surrounding surfaces.

An alternative is to purchase a low cost mechanical soldering iron for your heavy wire connections. I used one for years until I broke down and purchased a good soldering station with extra-large tips to go with it.

One thing that is important is if you go with the larger soldering iron do not be tempted to use it for mechanical soldering. Using acid flux will contaminate it for electrical purposes and may give problems when you try and use it again for electrical connections.

I bought two they were inexpensive and I even keep my soldering supplies in separate containers. Acid flux/mechanical applications in one box and electrical/electronic rosin flux in another.

Here is a picture of the type of soldering iron I am talking about.
Weller SP80NUS Heavy Duty Soldering Iron[/QUOTE]

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Topic Review (Newest First)

03-10-2016 07:07 PM

stegl

Re: Soldering station debate

I had the Weller 550 model gun at 200/260 watts for over45 years until; the trigger switch gave out. It was a winner. If you tried the 100/140 watt yes it may have been slower and not quite adequate .

03-10-2016 06:57 PM

Lazy Ace

Re: Soldering station debate

Tried soldering guns never found the tips were capable of holding enough heat to quickly solder large gauge wire and heavy connectors like an iron was. When soldering multiple leads it was a pain if you had to set the gun down to adjust your work then wait till the gun came back up to temp. With an iron it was always ready and up to temp the moment you picked it up. Compared with an iron I found guns heavy and awkward.

Dennis

03-10-2016 03:38 PM

stegl

Re: Soldering station debate

The weight comes a lot from the heavy transformer in the unit, its not lite.

03-10-2016 03:18 PM

4*60

Re: Soldering station debate

Just an example. These fit my knockoff station.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pcs-Solde...MAAOSwwTlUoWLm

And I was going to point to the knockoff station but HK now wants $44 US Fedex to ship a $12 soldering station to Canada from Oregon.

03-10-2016 11:25 AM

stegl

Re: Soldering station debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmith

Thanks for the help...just ordered a couple different tips to try. Amainhobbies sells them for $8 to $9, was the best price I could find.

I do have a 60 watt iron that works for heavy connectors, but it gets too hot and it becomes near impossible to keep the tip clean. I end up unplugging between each joint to cool it a bit. I bought the Hakko to have adjustable temperature/consistent temperature.

That's what I liked about the trigger gun type Weller in dual wattage as they shut down the minute the trigger was released plus the dual wattage. I had the higher wattage Weller and was perfect.

03-10-2016 10:35 AM

Lazy Ace

Re: Soldering station debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmith

I do have a 60 watt iron that works for heavy connectors, but it gets too hot and it becomes near impossible to keep the tip clean. I end up unplugging between each joint to cool it a bit. I bought the Hakko to have adjustable temperature/consistent temperature.

I found a cloth dampened with water cleans the tips pretty good before each use. Its the nature of the beast with heavy duty soldering irons. We used to use a rosin block on the tips and it cleaned them really good hard to find any more.

Dennis

03-10-2016 09:26 AM

cosmith

Re: Soldering station debate

03-10-2016 08:56 AM

Lazy Ace

Re: Soldering station debate

As you can see the size of the tip is as important as the wattage of the heating element. I the tip is too small to hold a constant heat the job will wick away enough heat to either cause a poor/cold solder joint or having to leave the iron on the joint for too long causing overheating of the surrounding surfaces.

An alternative is to purchase a low cost mechanical soldering iron for your heavy wire connections. I used one for years until I broke down and purchased a good soldering station with extra-large tips to go with it.

One thing that is important is if you go with the larger soldering iron do not be tempted to use it for mechanical soldering. Using acid flux will contaminate it for electrical purposes and may give problems when you try and use it again for electrical connections.

I bought two they were inexpensive and I even keep my soldering supplies in separate containers. Acid flux/mechanical applications in one box and electrical/electronic rosin flux in another.

Here is a picture of the type of soldering iron I am talking about.
Weller SP80NUS Heavy Duty Soldering Iron

03-09-2016 10:52 PM

gixerfien

Re: Soldering station debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmith

Finally got myself a decent soldering station...a Hakko FX888D. Only bummer is that it came with a little pointy tip that I quickly learned was not capable of soldering 10ga or 12ga wire to connectors.

What tip is everyone using to solder heavy gauge battery leads, connectors, etc???

Cheers!

sry for the late reply.

for soldering 10awg wire I use the "S3" tip, it's their biggest tip they offer for this station at 5.2mm

All together I own the CO5, BL, D32, D16, and K

03-09-2016 07:57 AM

Lazy Ace

Re: Soldering station debate

I have an old Team Checkpoint soldering station that has interchangeable tips. Fine pencil, medium chisel point and heavy duty wedge style. This station only gets used for electrical/electronic soldering. I have other irons for mechanical soldering and never mix the two. The mechanical uses an acid base flux and any trace can cause problems if it were to contaminate electrical/electronic connections/components.

The soldering station was under 100 bucks including a bunch of tips one of the best purchases I have made.

Dennis

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