Good Soldering Iron

TitaniumHamster · Post by **TitaniumHamster** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:33 pm

Does anyone here know of a good, mid-30s ranged (american dollars) soldering iron? I'm sick of using radioshack el-cheapos.

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:50 pm

Weller, I use a RadioShack 20W one myself, and it's fine.

Post by **Skyone** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:26 pm

$35 12W Weller

Best iron I've used.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:37 pm

12W seems a tad low...

I recently bought a good $12 radio shack one. It's got a pot at the end So you can use anywhere from 0-60W. Pretty handy for soldering more/less delicate components.

with stay-cool handle

WOW!!!

THAT FEATURE COULD COME IN HANDY!!! It's too bad my soldering iron doesn't have that feature...

Klefmung · Post by **Klefmung** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:49 pm

I got a non-radio shack brand one from radio shack that was 30w, black and shaped like a gun

TitaniumHamster · Post by **TitaniumHamster** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:33 pm

Skyone wrote:$35 12W Weller

Best iron I've used.

Sky-1 wins!

Post by **Skyone** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:39 pm

TitaniumHamster wrote:
Skyone wrote:$35 12W Weller

Best iron I've used.
Sky-1 wins!

By the way, Kurt, wattage has no matter. In fact, a lower wattage is better than a higher.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:59 pm

no not always. have you ever tried to solder a wire to a piece of copper pipe with a 12W iron?.

the point is sometimes you need a lot of power, and sometimes you dont. its nice to be able to crank it up to 60 sometimes.

Post by **Skyone** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 9:13 pm

timmeh87 wrote:no not always. have you ever tried to solder a wire to a piece of copper pipe with a 12W iron?.

the point is sometimes you need a lot of power, and sometimes you dont. its nice to be able to crank it up to 60 sometimes.

Wattage does not neccesarily effect temperature directly though.

superdeformed · Post by **superdeformed** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:44 pm

In the case of that iron the wattage doesn't affect the nominal temperature at all. Since it's only 12 watts though, it will take longer to reach 800ÂºF, and if you're soldering anything bigger than SMD caps/resistors with it the temperature will drop pretty fast and take a while to get back up. A high wattage (40+) iron with a temperature controlled output is usually the best thing to use.

If you're looking for a good, cheap iron, I suggest one of these. I haven't used the normal one personally (just their older tweezers version, which works great), but quite a few people have recommended it to me. Also, I'm pretty sure that they're just re-branded HaKo irons.

TitaniumHamster · Post by **TitaniumHamster** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 3:21 pm

superdeformed wins! Maybe!

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 3:34 pm

Skyone wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:no not always. have you ever tried to solder a wire to a piece of copper pipe with a 12W iron?.

the point is sometimes you need a lot of power, and sometimes you dont. its nice to be able to crank it up to 60 sometimes.
Wattage does not neccesarily effect temperature directly though.

i dont think i used the word temperature

Post by **Skyone** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:40 pm

No but that's what I commonly hear wattage reffered to.

joevennix · Post by **joevennix** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:21 pm

12W Pencil iron from Fry's is kickass. It's so thin, it's like... a pencil.
I haven't bought one yet, but I've seen it there. It's so small.

The other day I was at a garage sale and there was a soldering iron as thick as my arm! I guess that's for copper pipe and such...
I can imagine burns from that thing.

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:35 pm

point is that a thinner point requires less watts to heat up to a proper temperature to melt solder

Now soldering two pieces of copper pipe needs more wattage because the heat becomes dispersed in the copper

now a focused heat on a point is perfect for the types of hacking this forum is known fo go with sky for the hacking you are planning to do