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Soldering irons
GdS:
I haven't bought one for decades and my old 20w Antex really struggles now. Tried to buy one with the old fashioned flat angled head and they all seem to be needle point these days. How does that work? does the solder form a drop around the head?
Kim:
--- Quote from: GdS on 30 June, 2022, 08:47:22 pm ---they all seem to be needle point these days. How does that work?
--- End quote ---
Badly. Unless you're using it to melt holes in things.
My preference for actual soldering is a good old-fashioned chisel tip for big stuff, 1.5mm bevel tip for small stuff.
I'm suspicious that irons are sold with conical tips to encourage people to buy more tips, or something.
jdsnape:
I think the conical tips are for soldering surface mount components which are tiny. For a decent cheap iron I’ve seen lots of people recommend the TS100 or TS80. I have the TS100 and once I paired it with a beefy power supply it’s been great.
Kim:
--- Quote from: jdsnape on 30 June, 2022, 10:03:26 pm ---I think the conical tips are for soldering surface mount components which are tiny.
--- End quote ---
No, they're hopeless for SMD stuff. Once you get much smaller than 0805 it's all about surface tension and persuading solder blobs to go where you want, rather than applying solder to individual joints the way you do with through-hole parts. A bevel tip (or concave bevel) is much better for drag soldering fine pitch IC legs than a conical.
Also, you don't buy the ubiquitous <£10 mains-powered soldering iron with a conical tip to work on SMD parts. Not unless you're a) desperate b) naive or c) wildly optimistic. (I did try soldering some 0603 resistors using one of these, with lead free solder for extra masochism, just to see if I could do it. The answer was yes, but it wasn't pretty and it's not an experience I want to repeat in a hurry.)
aidan.f:
The cheap mains ones also tend to zap low power semiconductor inputs.
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