On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:39:37 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Bill
>
>Thanks for your input
>
>I meant to write 200 F not watts.
Ok, you need (obviously) enough heat to melt the solder, and enough
reserve (wattage) to heat the mass of the connection and keep it hot.
The reason people say to use a 30 watt or smaller iron when soldering
electronics is that those irons do not feature adjustable temperature.
The smaller wattage gives you a smaller tip, and hopefully you won't
take a welding torch to the project by using the iron.
You want to go for temperature. 600 to 700 is about right. You can
start off low, then inch it up as you experiment to adjust it for the
right temperature. Low enough for a good solder joint, not so high
that the part overheats.
Harvey
>
>My station is a Weller WESD51. I found a manual for it and downloaded it and all it tells me is that it is a 50W station with an
>adjustable setting of 350-850 F.
>
>So even though it is not telling me temp to watt settings, I am assuming that means at the highest temperature of 850F it delivers
>50W to the tip.
>
>So to my way of thinking assuming it is a linear progression and simple math will suffice:
>
>850F/50W= 17 degrees per watt
>
>30W would be approx 510F
>35W would be approx 595F
>
> So according to what you said: 600F seems to be around 37 Watts or so if my simple calculations are enough to correlate it which
>and would be about right for SMD work.
>
>If there is an engineer available please verify or smash my thinking.
>
>
>Bob AD5VJ
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
>> [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of bverstelle
>> Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:14 PM
>> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: SMD soldering
>>
>> Hi Bob,
>> I don't think you would want to use 200 watts to solder smd's
>> with, 15 watts is more than enough. I have Weller station and
>> my dial is calibrated in temp not watts. I keep it about 600
>> degrees unless I'm trying to solder to a large ground plane.
>> I like to have a iron a little on the hot side it puts less
>> stress on the parts by flowing solder faster and getting off
>> quicker than to slowly heat things up. Check your iron I
>> can't believe it is 200 watts.
>> 73, Bill N7OQ
>>
>> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "AD5VJ Bob" <rtnmi@...> wrote:
>> >
>> > I am trying to establish what temperature I should use for my SMD
>> > parts soldering. My Iron is a Weller and has temperature
>> not wattage readout.
>> >
>> > As I understand it the wattage should be around 200 for smd
>> parts. What temp F does that correlate to?
>> >
>> > Bob AD5VJ
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>>
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>>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------
>
>Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
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>