Hi Stefan
No I was not aware of the different names. I once not long ago had a real soldering iron however. The type they actually used to
place in fire in order to heat up.
It was just as named a large piece of iron with a wooden handle. Now I certainly would not recommend that for SMD LOL
We have come a long long way in a short short time.
Bob AD5VJ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stefan Trethan
> Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 1:09 AM
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: SMD soldering
>
> I only want to add that flux and flux smoke can aid in
> finding the correct temperature.
> When soldering there should be just a little smoke from the
> flux, but not so much that all the flux is burned away upon contact.
> You can try how long it takes until the solder stops smoking
> - it must be well longer than you would take to make a joint.
>
> Again this is not precise, because solder comes with
> different amounts and types of flux, but it gives a good indication.
>
> 600 to 700 F (around 350C) is where you usually want to be
> for leaded solder, more like 750F for leadfree solder.
>
> Did you know that soldering irons were once more correctly
> called soldering coppers in the US? I spotted this recently
> in an old telephone company tool care manual.
> I wonder why the name iron persisted.
>
> ST
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 7:01 AM, Harvey White
> <madyn@...> wrote:
> > 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
> >>> >
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links,
> Files, and
> >>> Photos:
> >>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>------------------------------------
> >>
> >>Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links,
> Files, and Photos:
> >>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links,
> Files, and Photos:
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links,
> Files, and Photos:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>