Homebrew PCBs

Sound great guys thanks for the input, always helpful as usual. 

Now I am off to search for a 10X stereo microscope at a good price somewhere for soldering these little SMD's.

I wear trifocals now at 58 yrs, so bare eyes are out of the picture anymore for close up work like this stuff LOL

Bob AD5VJ  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Harvey White
> Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 12:02 AM
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: SMD soldering
> 
> 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:
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> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------
> >
> >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
> 
> 
>