soldering tips?

[1990LTD]

Any advice for someone learning to solder besides what's in this link?

http://www.fordfuelinjection.com/?p=7

[1990LTD]

& what is a minimum wattage I should look at when buying a soldering gun/iron? Why one or the other?

[Danny_R]

If I were you I'd buy the highest wattage soldering iron available. I once made the mistake of replacing my good iron with a cheap low wattage one and it struggled to flow solder on any wire bigger than 12 gauge. Now you may not ever be working with wires bigger than that but, a good quality soldering iron will last 20+ years and you'll be good to go with any kind of soldering job you may decide to undertake.

just my 2 cents.

Danny

[91grandmarquis]

Yeah cheap soldering irons suck, get one with replaceable tips and a high wattage.

[gadget73]

It depends what you're doing what wattage you want. I had a 40w Weller that worked very well on larger wire, but it was so hot it cooked the tips away constantly just from being plugged in. The 25 Weller I had was great but it wouldn't do over about a 14 ga wire. 100w guns do fat wire, but I find them incredibly cumbersome and I've never gotten nice clean results when splicing wires with them. Radio Shack irons aren't worth a flying shit, so don't bother with them. Their 40w iron works about as well as a decent 25w iron.

[sly]

temp controlled weller is awesome (but kinda spensive - ~$180). If you plan on soldering small stuff and large stuff... get a cheap iron with replaceable tips (25-35 watt) for the small stuff and a gun or hot iron (big fat soldering iron) for the big stuff. I have an old 13amp hotplate controller (electric stove burner control in a box w/3-prong outlet) to control my 35W iron. I've done up to 14 gauge wire with that (anything bigger takes forever and tends to get cold joints - not a good thing). I will be getting a weller one of these days with the digital temp control because I do some wicked small stuff from time to time (trace repair and such) just because I can. I do want to get a butane torch type soldering iron or big fat iron eventually. I would like to fix up the lug I used for my sub amp... not sure if it will really last. 2 10 gauge wires into a 4 gauge lug. The 35W iron got it about half full of solder before it weenied out.

+1 against radio snack irons. the 25W one I had never could do anything right other than 18 gauge or smaller wire joints/tinning.

[1990LTD]

I just want it to make more permanent connections than a butt splice when I'm doing stuff like lights, audio, will likely replace the green wire connection to my alternator with a soldered one.

[1980c10]

I have a 40 watt weller it's great. But like they said it eats to tips every so often.

[gadget73]

I actually have the soldering station from Harbor Frieght and its entirely decent. Not a Weller, but it was also $40 on sale. Needs a new tip now, but I think it takes Weller tips.

[zoomie]

the type of solder is imprtant too, i usually use silver bearing solder, i have used the wallyworld stuff before to ,but it majorly sucks.

[gadget73]

bah @ lead free solder. 60/40 rosin core with toxic metals ftw.

[grandpaslincoln]

Getting harder to find 60/40 around here.

I use a Weller 25, used to have a thirty but it died long ago. The 25 works great just for general soldering, the bigger stuff (desoldering heatsinks and things from PCB's) becomes time consuming though. I like the Wellers mostly because the tip screws in instead of a straight shaft with a set screw on the side of the iron. Also easy to make new tips using a bolt from the hardware store with the head lopped off and ground into a point lol

[gadget73]

yeah, all this RoHS crap. I really need to buy a case of the stuff. The lead free solder doesn't mix all that great with old lead solder, which is 95% of what I deal with.


Soldering tips are usually plated copper, not steel.

[grandpaslincoln]

Steel bolt works good in a pinch though lol

[Danny_R]

I once welded an exhaust muffler with a steel coat hanger. Still holding up like a champ! lol