[sdiy] Soldering iron recommendations

[Roman Sowa]

This is why there is temperature control. 100W will not do any damage if 
temperature is well regulated. My soldering station is 100W and does not 
any bad to 0402 or anything.

I also used non-regulated irons for long time. Even better, I used to 
solder PLCC using transformer gun and became "an expert" of controling 
tip temperature by finger-actuated PWM.
Anyway, my first good soldering iron was Weller non-regulated, which I 
plugged to light dimmer. Worked like charm, soldered 100-pin PQFP with 
it. When I switched to Xytronic station, it took me 2 solder joint to 
realize how good that thing is. Later, when I reached higher level to 
one of the well known brands that was not mentioned yet in this thread, 
it took me a bit more, maybe 10 solder joints to see that was a good 
investment. Now I see some weak sides of it too, and that's why I have 
about 20 different tips for it.

Long story short - get the best you can and learn how to use it. It's 
like with photos. Crappy photographer will make crappy photos with 
10.000EUR SLR, while good one will make outstanding pictures with 5-year 
old phone.
I'm not offending anyone here, I hope.

Roman

W dniu 2014-07-08 16:18, rsdio at audiobanshee.com pisze:
> Note that higher wattage is not always better. For small electronics like synths, 100 W would do some damage where 60 W would not. However, 65 W is a little closer to typical than 50 W, so maybe you're making the right choice.
>
> As for me, I've had great luck with cheap irons. A Sears Craftsman iron with a Radio Shack long-life tip has lasted me for decades. As long as the handle is ergonomic and the tip doesn't corrode, there's not much magic to an iron besides delivering heat. I've never been a fan of the cumbersome power station with separate pencil and holder. Instead, I've nearly exclusively worked with soldering pencils that plug directly into the wall without a station. This makes my setup portable, so I can repair in the field or set up on any table in my house. I did finally break down and get a Weller WD 2M station because it was the only way to get soldering tweezers. The thing is heavy, and thus more difficult to transport, but I really like having both pencil and tweezers attached and ready at the same time. The soldering tweezers are indispensable for SMD work, and make removal of caps and resistors incredibly quick. There's even a tip large enough to desolder an 8-pin chip in one go 
 (a
>   nd I've managed to work around a 14-pin SOIC with enough heat to remove that).
>
> I'm sure there are many good choices. So long as the tip doesn't get eaten away by the solder, you should be fine with any brand.
>
> Brian Willoughby
> Sound Consulting
>
>
> On Jul 7, 2014, at 2:41 PM, Rkm wrote:
>> Thanks to everyone for the information.  I think I'll go with the Hakko FX888.  The amazon reviews for it and the Weller WES51 were nearly identical and the Hakko is 65W instead of 50W.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Rkmoore
>
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