Author Topic: Soldering irons  (Read 843 times)

GdS

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Soldering irons
« on: 30 June, 2022, 08:47:22 pm »
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

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Re: Soldering irons
« Reply #1 on: 30 June, 2022, 09:02:36 pm »
they all seem to be needle point these days. How does that work?

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.

Re: Soldering irons
« Reply #2 on: 30 June, 2022, 10:03:26 pm »
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

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Re: Soldering irons
« Reply #3 on: 30 June, 2022, 10:15:01 pm »
I think the conical tips are for soldering surface mount components which are tiny.

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.)

Re: Soldering irons
« Reply #4 on: 30 June, 2022, 11:31:53 pm »
The cheap mains ones also tend to zap low power semiconductor inputs.

Re: Soldering irons
« Reply #5 on: 05 July, 2022, 09:54:53 am »
Pretty much all the lower end irons come with a completely useless pointy tip. I bought an Atten not so long ago, useless with supplied tip, but when combined with a decent Hakko chisel tip it's turned out to be a good job.

Atten 937.


T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Soldering irons
« Reply #6 on: 05 July, 2022, 01:20:08 pm »
I have several recent irons but the old Henley Solon (on the left, here: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/henley_soldering_iron_henley_solon.html) I bought when I was 15 works better than any of them. Haven't used it for tiny stuff, though, just guitar wiring. And a valve SW radio when I was 15.
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