Question about Soldering Temperatures
 

Hi,

After looking soldering iron threads, I'm just about ready to spring for a good soldering station (Hakko or Weller).

Up to this point, I'd been using a couple of inexpensive Radio Shack 15 watt and 30 watt pencils.

I plan on getting a temperature control station, which brings up a new problem for me:

I have no idea what the temperature conventions are for soldering, say, SMD parts, or small 8-pin chips vs. something like a large snap-on capacitor, or some wiring to a binding post. Previously, I my only options were high power or low power.

Can anyone post or point me to some guide-lines on what temperatures I would use for these various jobs? I'm interested particularly in temperatures for chips and small components, as I don't want to over-heat anything.

Thanks,
KT

Soldering temp information is almost always given on the Tech notes for whatever you are using. Like the lm3875 says,
"Soldering Information T package (10 seconds) 260°C"

And as to soldering stations, I've recently gotten one myself. And I’m quite pleased with it. I've been meaning to bring it up in one of the solder station threads but well I haven’t. I got a Solomon station and it's very nice. Not a big name, and it's fairly hard to find much info on them, i think they could even been out of business. But I've done quite a bit of work with it so far, and it heats up fast, solders BIG stuff, has a nice cord and yeah.. It was REALLY cheap. $35 I think I paid.
Here are two electronics surplus type places that have em.
https://www.mpja.com/listitems.asp?dept=79&main=73
And I got mine from here
http://www.dalbani.com
(Their website is a pain, but the prices were better, and check out the RCA's jacks while you are there.)

I bought a soldering station (also very inexpensive at $35 or so from www.circuitspecialists.com) last January and I think it is the single best investment I've ever made in DIY electronics. Dial in the temp and it holds it there, recovering far faster than my old RS "firestick".

BTW at Circuit Specialists if you spend $50 or more they give you a free digital multimeter! It isn't a top of the line Fluke or anything but it works very well. Get a soldering station for $35, add some flux, a big roll of solder and an extra tip for the iron and you are probably there. (I have no affiliation with them other than as a satisfied customer.)

I set my soldering station for 800 degrees F.
The secret is to solder quickly. You must learn to heat the connection just enough to flow the solder and then add the solder to the point between the tip of your soldering pencil and the connection.

As with everything, practice makes perfect. You'll know you've got a good solder joint when the connection is nice and shiny.

Another secret is to read the label on the solder you're using. ;)

For example, Multicore SavBit, recommended bit temperature 335C, Multicore Lead-Free, rbt 360C. :checked:

Re: Question about Soldering Temperatures
 

Most parts are rather insensitive against heat. 350-370 deg C 50 W will handle 99.9% of your soldering. In some cases you have to turn upp the temp to 450 deg (much metal to heat) and in some rare cases turn down to 300-250 deg. The most heat sensitive objects are cables and come capacitor types like polystyrene (rare these days). You don't have to worry at all for semiconductors.

260 deg for 10 seconds are valid for machine soldering!

The best you can buy, IF you want it to last for a lifetime are:

- Ersa
- JBC
- Weller