Yea, I have had this cheap soldering iron from radioshack for about 6 months now, and it is really blowing me over - terrible heat for half an hour (after 10 minutes of warming up), then suddenly it goes into super heat mode for about 10 minutes before reverting into into its dormant form. Swapped out the soldering tips numerous times throughout my ownership period so it's not that.
Needless to say I need a good soldering iron that will last me a while and is price-efficient (I am ready to pay a good price, but would like to have the money pay off)
Any links to specific soldering irons you fellas have would be great.
P.S: I really only solder Perf Boards, not SMD parts, if that matters.
I used to use a 'firestarter' as its referred to by some around here - and solder PCB's and perfboards etc as well - haven't touched SMD for my own purposes really (yet!) besides some SMD removal/patching...
I also got sick of it, and I want to get an SMD rework station but thats currently beyond my reach this month or next... so I 'upgraded' to this Soldering Station that is at least temp-control, uses a pencil, etc.
DSE T1976 Solder Station I also grabbed it on special when it was only $45 dollars - and I got a 12month extended warranty thrown in.
Much nicer to solder with than the old one - and having adjustable temps are nice. But it is a cheap station - and I bought it knowing full well that I hope to replace it within the next couple of months with something equivalent to the SparkFun SMD Rework station... However I have been very happy with the improvement over the firestarter
I've done a lot of soldering, and gone through literally dozens of irons. The one I've been most happy with and has treated me the best is a weller WESD51, (similar to the one florinc posted, I just have the digital version of it). I'm convinced you cannot go wrong with either the analog or digital version of this iron. The tip is pre-treated so you will never have to use any sort of 'tip tinner' or tip refinishing stuff, and you'll actually want to stay away from that as once you use the stuff it can ruin certain tips.
The irons seem expensive, but they heat up quickly (60-90 seconds), heat stays consistent from soldering, to using the sponge, back to soldering.
Whatever you do get, just keep in mind that you need to maintain even industrial type irons, remove the tip once in a while and clean the crud off it, sometimes even on good irons the tip will seize to the heating element.
if you want a good soldering iron but if you don't like soldering station you can use weller iron using the CT series tip. just be sure to select the correct tip, the temperature regulation depend on the tip, there are tip for 600, 700 & 800°F.
it is not cheaper than a soldering station, but theses iron have a quite high wattage and are temperature regulated...
I have the WES51 and it's a great iron. The WESD51 is identical except the D has a digital display of the temperature. You have to have a decent iron even just for assembling perf board.
I think the only reason the radio shack crap exists is to fool newbies into thinking soldering is difficult and tedious. With a good iron it's a pleasure.
interesting product, but you can only adjust the power of the iron, it's not temperature controlled... thus it is almost as bad as other firestarter...(okay turning a button regulary is more convenient that disconecting the iron every few mins...) temperature regulation is the first thing i'll seek when i'm looking for a good iron...
avoid burnt solder and tip degradation while keeping the iron hot for hours is the first thing i'm seeking personnally... temperature controlled iron can also use some higher wattage heater without overheating and that is a great plus when soldering heavy connectors or when desoldering thing soldered to a ground plane...
I' ve been doing a bit of soldering lately and I tried something I hadn' t thought of or tried before.
I undid the screw ,pulled the tip and cleaned it all over. Then I thought I wonder if I push the tip into the element more to get it hotter or do I pull it out longer?
I decided to push it in and it is considerably hotter and much better to work with. Should have been obvious but it hadn' t dawned on me in 40Years.
So I then looked at this thread and wondered if the OP had a loose or faulty screw or was out too far maybe.
That's funny 'cause my "firestarter" piece of **** iron from radioshack actually lost the head of that screw. Well, not really lost, it broke off during one of my cleaning sessions. >:(
