What's your Soldering Iron and Solder?

cstanley

Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2017
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43
Hey guys,

Wanted to see what my fellow Internet brethren are using soldering equipment wise. Right now I am using a cheapo RadioShack 15w iron with a cheap station with magnifying glass and light. I am usingPPD63% 0.4mm solder. It's what I had on hand, I have ordered some 63/37 Tin Lead Rosen Core Flux 1.2mm solder - should be in soon.

What equipment do you guys use? What makes you like yours?

Here is mine from another project I was working on. I'm looking to upgrade my soldering iron. Perhaps a soldering gun?


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I have two soldering irons, a JBC 30S (25w 380c) with 1mm round tip for small jobs, especially computer board modifications for my extreme overclocking hobby.
The second one is a cheap Toolcraft 100W with 8mm flat tip for bigger works, I use it to solder directly two PCB to each others(We sometime replace VRM from graphic cards or motherboards with some external VRM, theses can provide sometime 400A into 1.5-2v so you need serious solder and lot of shorts cables/copper bars) , and now I also use it for 18650 as it don't take time to solder cells so they don't overheat like with small soldering irons.

Both have hundreds of hours, sometime forgot them heating for a day or more (very stupid I know...) and they are still working great so I don't plan to replace them.
 
I use a $25 Crescent N40D 40w iron - cheap and nasty and burns through tips (probably because of having to burn the enamel off the fuse) Best one I've used for soldering also it's about the solder you use - buy a few different ones some work much better than others. For right or wrong I use 50/50 plumbers soldier works great (with a bit of cleanup)
 
I use a Precision Gold A55KJ 60W Soldering station, immensely quick heatup and can set the temperature, used it for about 12-18 months for numerous projects and havent burn up a bit yet.

I also use some cheap chinese clone 60W Solder rework station with Hot air gun, about 40 delivered and it gets bloody hot! it comes with a hakko clone soldering iron, and it wears out the 7 bits in weeks.

Still deciding if I am going to be soldering or welding the positives, the negatives will be welded for simplicities sake - if im going to end up making a 1000+ cell Id rather not be spending night after night soldering one side, then the other.
 
How are you guys using such low wattage irons? I can't get my 35w near hot enough to solder 18650s even with a new tip. I'm using a Weller W100PG 100w iron with a smaller tip that's about the width of the positive terminal. Gets nice and hot. About 0.5 seconds (sometimes less) on a battery does the job. Minimal to no heat transfer.
 
mike said:
How are you guys using such low wattage irons? I can't get my 35w near hot enough to solder 18650s even with a new tip.
...


When using my 15W iron sometimes I have to use the side of the tip, the thicker cone part, to get the solder to melt. It might help to notethat I am using tiny solder as well - 0.4mm

Just purchased a 60w will post the difference when it comes in.
 
Hakko 888 65W (non D model), with 63/37 rosin core solder, however for stuff like busbar to busbar, i generally pull out the mini butane torch, Once the metal is up to temp, its very easy to have an iron maintain it as you fill solder from various angles,

Tip has lasted so far 2 years of almost daily use, including things i probably shouldn't do, like welding plastics, and scraping pads as I solder them. However i do always clean the plastic off as soon as i am done, and wipe off the crud,

A cheap soldering station will generally beat out a more expensive fire stick, as the temperature regulation is much more responsive, and it mostly removes the issue of too much wattage, as it will only put in what it takes to reach that temperature,

Soldering to the batteries i would believe all the way down to 8W, if you cleaned the tops first and used flux, and only using fusing wire, The busbar side, i would imagine 20W would be the comfortable minimum, just remember a higher wattage iron generally means you heat the joint less as the solder is molten on top before the heat has a chance to dissipate into the rest of it.

Also there are a number of tips available, for fusing wire, i would recommend a horseshoe tip, or a 2-5mm chisel tip, Conicals loose out to chisel tips once you learn to tilt the chisel on its side.
 
mike said:
How are you guys using such low wattage irons? I can't get my 35w near hot enough to solder 18650s even with a new tip. I'm using a Weller W100PG 100w iron with a smaller tip that's about the width of the positive terminal. Gets nice and hot. About 0.5 seconds (sometimes less) on a battery does the job. Minimal to no heat transfer.

A trick I was taught years ago when soldering onto the smooth surface of battery ends is get some sandpaper and scuff up the surface. This gives the solder something to bite onto and might help reduce the time you need to leave the iron in place dumping unwanted heat into your cells.
 
I use a beastly Weller SP80NUS soldering iron originally designed for the stained-glass soldering industry. So far it has been my best soldering iron. The tip on the thing is HUGE (1/4" in diameter) so the tip holds a TON of thermal mass. I literally just touch the tip to the top of the cells and the flux instantly boils away within seconds and I have a great solder joint in less than three seconds. The iron actually has twice the power as many folks here using the 40 watters, so my concern would be that I was going to kill the cells. But I have actually had BETTER success rate with this soldering iron, simply because I have to leave the iron on the cell for such a brief period of time. The best part about this iron is I never have to replace the tip, EVER. Because the tip is so large for my purposes, it never corrodes away like a lot of the smaller tips do. I got mine on ebay here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FREE-SHIPPI...9280829?hash=item3d31d88e3d:g:U5cAAOSwo4pYjqA

Here is a picture of one I pulled from another forum:


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I got a Western Auto soldering gun for my birthday in 1961, and still use it for big stuff, with a 3" length of bare AWG12 or 14 copper wire formed into a tip. (The original tips burned up long ago)

I have a MMPJ Solder Station 15845 TL (ZD-929C), but don't like it. It regulates well, but the iron fits the holster badly, and the tip is too far away from the grip. Parts are basically unobtainium.

A YOUYUE (Hakko) 8586 700W Hot Air Gun Soldering Station is what I use now for low wattage work. The unit and its replacement parts are cheap. It is powered by an old-fashion transformer, not a switching power supply, the soldering iron collar has to be filed down to precisely fit the holder and the power switches are on the lower edge. The LED temperature readout is only for the hot air (controlled by up and down buttons), not the iron (controlled by a knob, with a very bright LED element 'ON' indicator). It remembers all temperature settings when shut off. The hot air temperature idles down when the unit is placed in its holder, but the fan speed stays at the work setting (controlled by a knob). I built an angled stand for it to raise the controls and the hot air is great for rework. The unit consumes 3.2W when 'OFF', so use it with a timer or swiched outlet.

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An outlet countdown timer is a must for all soldering irons that don't have auto shut-off:
https://www.amazon.com/Century-Mechanical-Countdown-Timer-Grounded/dp/B00MVDTEXS/


Nathan said:
... it comes with a hakko clone soldering iron, and it wears out the 7 bits in weeks.

ONE 7 bit? Goodness!

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=Hakko+soldering+tip
 
I'll be using one very similar to CUDAcores89's. It has 3 led on it to 'help' light up your work (not all that great, really). But, it's my first heavier wattage iron. The other one I have is a 35Watt I use on occasion as well.

Now, while browsing through youtube, which I do quite often hours on end at times, I came across this neat little video. I think I might actually build this since It's straight forward, easy to build, and can be made to be expandable in the future:


 
Hi...i am a new user here. As per my knowledge a cheap soldering station will generally beat out a more expensive fire stick, as the temperature regulation is much more responsive, and it mostly removes the issue of too much wattage, as it will only put in what it takes to reach that temperature,Soldering to the batteries i would believe all the way down to 8W, if you cleaned the tops first and used flux, and only using fusing wire, The busbar side, i would imagine 20W would be the comfortable minimum, just remember a higher wattage iron generally means you heat the joint less as the solder is molten on top before the heat has a chance to dissipate into the rest of it.
 
I have to agree withCUDAcores89, I have a cheap $27100W soldering iron from a hobby warehouse (rhymes with "Lobby Hobby") and found itin their "stained glass window" building section. I made my own stand for it.

It has a fat chisel-tip, so lots of thermal mass. I could get by with a lower wattage soldering iron as long as it has a lot of thermal mass, but...after one operation?...I would have to wait for it to heat-up again. 100W plus fat tip = no waiting time.
 
Currently using one of these re-work stations... it was my first higher end station which is temp controlled. Actually works pretty well. I dont use hot air much other than to pull/recover multi-pin components off PCBs, or for heat shrink which it is very convenient for.


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I am soon to upgrade to a JBC iron... after using it, its all I have been thinking about for the last couple years. It will likely be the last station I would never buy.

Solder... only Kester brand 63/37. I love the stuff, buy it in bulk. Never going back to 60/40.

https://www.amazon.com/JBC-Tools-CD...pID=410iFRTlo4L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 
Solder - anything cheap on ebay 1x thicker wire 1x thinner
Soldering iron - 50w 12v (cheap ones only exist at 12v)
 
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