Can someone please advise me about acceptable soldering temperatures for small components, e.g. 1/4~1/2W resistors, small caps, transistors etc.
Am I better to buy a digital temp display soldering station or is an analogue meter type going to be close enough for most soldering jobs. I currently only have a 60W soldering iron and apart from the huge tip on it I am sure it will simply roast any small electronic component I try to solder.
Thank you.
analog is fine, and often cheaper
I use a 15W iron for the small stuff.
Here is a useful guide to soldering in general. The main thing is to realize that it will take practice to gain proficiency, so before taking on that final project take the time to gain the experience and your confidence will improve.
Lefty
Many thanks for the replies - I will buy a smaller iron, 15-25W with small tips, and have a practice.
Weller WLC100 solder station and different sized tips to properly match the type of components you want to solder. The nice thing is the 40W iron has enough punch for soldering large lugs and with the heat control dialed down to 2 3/4, you can easily solder small components with a small tip and not fry anything (15W equivalent).
It's not a WES51 or such, but for our purposes covers quite a wide range of uses.
One very important and often neglected task is to make sure the tip is always clean.
I clean my tip regularly (every 5 - 10 solder joints or so) on the build in sponge (should be moist not wet) in my sulderstations stand.
If you don't clean the tip regularly, a layer of "dirty oxidized" solder will quickly build up on the tip making it a very frustrating experience to work with. This can lead to solderjoints that have way too much solder sitting in a large blob with no proper connection to the circuit board.
A dirty tip will also wear out faster.
I always solder at 380 C if there is a choice.
Use a good quality led solder, avoid if you possibly can the lead free stuff.
Yeah I use ~700F (darn american units!)
I like to use lead free solder, just because I work in my room in a house with my family, so leaded is not a good choice.
I like to use lead free solder, just because I work in my room in a house with my family, so leaded is not a good choice.
So, you like operating at higher temperatures that are more likely to damage your components, using materials that are more abusive of your tools?
Do not succumb to any fear of lead. Metallic lead is quite safe, as long as you don't ingest it. If you have enough brains to wash your hands before you eat, and keep it where the kids can't gnaw on it, there is absolutely no problem using lead. Oh, and it works better.
If you are worried about fumes, those are from flux, not from the metal (unless your soldering iron cranks up past 1740C).
There are decent reasons for consumer electronics to be manufactured with lead-free methods, but there is absolutely no reason for hobbyists to inflict that restriction on themselves.
For the original poster: I'd get either a chinese knockoff of a Hakko (e.g. circuit specialists), or even better, troll ebay until you find a good deal on a real Hakko 936. Even these analog models have temperature feedback, and they do a much nicer job.
-j
Weller WLC100 solder station...
the problem I have with wellers is that they think way too much of themselves, the one you mentioned is a great example, average price of around 60$, its a basic iron stcuk on a lamp dimmer
whereas the XYtronic one that I have is similar, but came with a much nicer stand, the tip is grounded, and it has 5 more watts for 10 less bucks, Plus its a excellent made iron
Or you could just use a light dimmer to control the voltage of your 60W soldering iron so that you can adjust the temperature to just how you like it.
yes, 15w is good, i use 25w for general, good solder joints is something that just comes with practice and experience
Or you could just use a light dimmer to control the voltage of your 60W soldering iron so that you can adjust the temperature to just how you like it.
The problem is that you can't. Without some form of thermal feedback you can't get any stable temperature as the amount of heat you are sucking out of your iron constantly changes and the light dimmer needs to be constantly tweeked to keep thing even.
Nobody has menioned that one needs to be able to easily get replacement tips for the fine tipped irons. I got my 15W iron from Radio Shack, and they stock the replacement tips. The fine tips will eventually disolve away so having a local place to get replacements is a plus.
depends, my tip is in like new condition, but nearly 2 years old
radio shack tips wither away in a few months
Some tis are just cheap, but tips designed for lead solder will corrode quickly if used with lead-free solder. Lead free solder requires a lead-free tip.
-j
Lead free solder requires a lead-free tip
Is regular or super unleaded, lol
isn't it the flux that eats the tips?
the key thing is to keep the tip clean, mine is a couple years old also, don't use anthing abrasive to clean the tip or you will remove the plating of it then it's just a downhill slide from there