Soldering Irons
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:32 pm
Another common question I get is what soldering irons do I use...
SOLDERING IRON I USE.
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10115-eu ... dp/2062627
I used this one because it is temperature controlled with three programmable temperature settings. It is a 60 W iron and can heat up to 450°C. Extra wattage is ideal for heating up larger copper areas. Even so, I would not recommend going for a soldering iron with less specification than this one.
I generally use 400°C for what I call lightweight soldering, and I use for 450°C and soldering larger copper areas, or if I am in a huge hurry and want to solder to melt quicker as I can normally solder pretty fast as well
Farnell sell various replacement soldering iron tips.
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10148/ti ... dp/2381857
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10140/ti ... dp/2381853
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10142/ti ... dp/2381854
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10146/ti ... dp/2381856
I generally use one of the smaller tips as I am generally doing fine work. Though if you're doing a lot of through-hole components, or generally larger parts, or heating parts on large copper areas, a larger tip would be more ideal for this.
GAS IRON I USE.
Another thing I use a lot as a gas soldering iron....
http://uk.farnell.com/antex/xg12pkt/sol ... dp/4307215
I have had this one the years, not really had much trouble with it. It comes with if you attachments. A large chisel tip, which is handy for when I need to solder something on my van. I could simply put chisel tip on take it outside do some soldering on something..
For Atari work, I mostly use the hot air nozzle. Basically to warm up large copper areas quicker, sometimes they can be a struggle just with normal soldering iron on its own. I also used to gas iron for reworking SMT devices.
There are cheaper alternatives about such as these..
http://uk.farnell.com/iroda/mj-600/sold ... dp/1296827
http://uk.farnell.com/iroda/pro-70/sold ... dp/1296806
But I strongly recommend is not buying either of those. I have had nothing but trouble with them, and gave up after a day with them. It is why I went with the more expensive one, and generally it is still going years later.
So if you want to go with gas soldering iron, go for a more expensive one, as the cheap ones are just total garbage.
HEAT BLOWER
https://www.therange.co.uk/hobbies-craf ... -heat-tool
One of the little more unusual things is a heat blower/gun. These are not the heat guns as sold in DIY shops. They are normally 2000 W and are far too vicious for desoldering work etc.
These are generally sold in craft shops for embossing work. Normally they are around 300W. Some I have seen also have two heat settings for 150 W and 300W for example. Though they seem a little harder to find.
I find these tools useful for SMT rework and also heating up large copper areas that I am struggling to solder with just a soldering iron alone.
For those who are confused between the gas soldering iron on the heat blower, the gas soldering iron is very focused and you can only heat up a few millimetres at a time. This is ideal if you just want to re-solder couple of small pins or something like that. Though sometimes more heat is needed to totally remove a SMT part, in which case the heat blower is a lot easier as it has a much wider heat area.
I generally would advise not going with anything any hotter, as it is far too easy to burn and blister circuit boards. It could take 30 seconds to a couple of minutes or longer to remove apart with this blower, but the point on which to solder melts generally appears gradually. The problem is generally the temperature that the solder melts, is only just below temperature that the PCB blisters and burns. So doing this slowly is the way to go.
So if a higher wattage blower was used, you would ramp up the temperature 10 times faster and likely burn circuit board. It is also not good to ramp up the temperature on any parts this fast anyway. So nice gradual rise of the temperature with 300 W or thereabouts blower is a pretty safe bet.
SOLDERING IRON I USE.
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10115-eu ... dp/2062627
I used this one because it is temperature controlled with three programmable temperature settings. It is a 60 W iron and can heat up to 450°C. Extra wattage is ideal for heating up larger copper areas. Even so, I would not recommend going for a soldering iron with less specification than this one.
I generally use 400°C for what I call lightweight soldering, and I use for 450°C and soldering larger copper areas, or if I am in a huge hurry and want to solder to melt quicker as I can normally solder pretty fast as well
Farnell sell various replacement soldering iron tips.
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10148/ti ... dp/2381857
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10140/ti ... dp/2381853
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10142/ti ... dp/2381854
http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10146/ti ... dp/2381856
I generally use one of the smaller tips as I am generally doing fine work. Though if you're doing a lot of through-hole components, or generally larger parts, or heating parts on large copper areas, a larger tip would be more ideal for this.
GAS IRON I USE.
Another thing I use a lot as a gas soldering iron....
http://uk.farnell.com/antex/xg12pkt/sol ... dp/4307215
I have had this one the years, not really had much trouble with it. It comes with if you attachments. A large chisel tip, which is handy for when I need to solder something on my van. I could simply put chisel tip on take it outside do some soldering on something..
For Atari work, I mostly use the hot air nozzle. Basically to warm up large copper areas quicker, sometimes they can be a struggle just with normal soldering iron on its own. I also used to gas iron for reworking SMT devices.
There are cheaper alternatives about such as these..
http://uk.farnell.com/iroda/mj-600/sold ... dp/1296827
http://uk.farnell.com/iroda/pro-70/sold ... dp/1296806
But I strongly recommend is not buying either of those. I have had nothing but trouble with them, and gave up after a day with them. It is why I went with the more expensive one, and generally it is still going years later.
So if you want to go with gas soldering iron, go for a more expensive one, as the cheap ones are just total garbage.
HEAT BLOWER
https://www.therange.co.uk/hobbies-craf ... -heat-tool
One of the little more unusual things is a heat blower/gun. These are not the heat guns as sold in DIY shops. They are normally 2000 W and are far too vicious for desoldering work etc.
These are generally sold in craft shops for embossing work. Normally they are around 300W. Some I have seen also have two heat settings for 150 W and 300W for example. Though they seem a little harder to find.
I find these tools useful for SMT rework and also heating up large copper areas that I am struggling to solder with just a soldering iron alone.
For those who are confused between the gas soldering iron on the heat blower, the gas soldering iron is very focused and you can only heat up a few millimetres at a time. This is ideal if you just want to re-solder couple of small pins or something like that. Though sometimes more heat is needed to totally remove a SMT part, in which case the heat blower is a lot easier as it has a much wider heat area.
I generally would advise not going with anything any hotter, as it is far too easy to burn and blister circuit boards. It could take 30 seconds to a couple of minutes or longer to remove apart with this blower, but the point on which to solder melts generally appears gradually. The problem is generally the temperature that the solder melts, is only just below temperature that the PCB blisters and burns. So doing this slowly is the way to go.
So if a higher wattage blower was used, you would ramp up the temperature 10 times faster and likely burn circuit board. It is also not good to ramp up the temperature on any parts this fast anyway. So nice gradual rise of the temperature with 300 W or thereabouts blower is a pretty safe bet.