| beerman |
The parts used for a GC are very small, I would imagine they're also sensetive to heat build-up, what should I look for in a soldering iron?
I have one that I used for installing my car alarm and remote start, but the tip is very large. If I can find a smaller tip, should I consider it? |
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| Fenris |
| A 25-50 watt iron is about right. Most decent irons have tips that can be replaced. If not, it's a cheap iron. You could always grind down the tip with a file to give a nice point. Don't be too concerned, most of the components aren't that sensitive to heat, mostly the capacitors and the chip itself, but decent technique won't put them anywhere near their limits. |
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| beerman |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fenris
You could always grind down the tip with a file to give a nice point. |
LOL, didn't even think of that. And it is replaceable, I have a replacement tip on it.
| quote: | Originally posted by Fenris
Don't be too concerned, most of the components aren't that sensitive to heat, mostly the capacitors and the chip itself, but decent technique won't put them anywhere near their limits. |
Thanks for the reassurance! |
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| jpg |
| quote: | | You could always grind down the tip with a file to give a nice point. |
Yeah, you can do that with a $2 iron where it really doesn't matter and throw the thing away when the tip is burnt off (and it will burn off pretty quickly when you file it down to the copper core) and no replacement tips are available. With quality stuff, this would be very bad practice, as a soldering tip is more than a piece of metal that gets hot. |
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| MJL21193 |
| jpg: Solid advice. In my youth, I used to do just that(file the crud off the tip to make it nice and shiney) until my uncle told me I should use a wet sponge to clean the tip. I had filed off the iron plating, and sure enough it started to disappear. The roson in the solder eats copper like crazy.:devilr: |
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| Minion |
I actually do exactly that....I buy these Cheapo $1 soldering irons and then Grind the Tip down to a sharp point and use it that way.....Each iron lasts me about 2 months and then I just replace it with another $1 Iron.....They actually work surpriseingly well....
:D |
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| impsick |
| SO YOU SAY A SPONGE WILL HELP FROM THE TIP EVAPORATING? IT SEEMS THAT EVEN WITHOUT SHARPENING IT DOWN IT STARTS TO GET SHORTER. IS THERE NO WAY TO PREVENT THAT? OR DO MORE EXPENSIVE TIPS LAST LONGER? |
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| juma |
| quote: | Originally posted by impsick
SO YOU SAY A SPONGE WILL HELP FROM THE TIP EVAPORATING? IT SEEMS THAT EVEN WITHOUT SHARPENING IT DOWN IT STARTS TO GET SHORTER. IS THERE NO WAY TO PREVENT THAT? OR DO MORE EXPENSIVE TIPS LAST LONGER? |
Buy a quality soldering iron. I have three solderinh irons. All 3 are WELLER (15W, 25W and 50W). They are 17, 10 and 25 years old, all with original tips (a dozen of them - for different purposes and temperatures - from SMD and SOIC chips soldering to soldering of steel metal sheets).
I clean them only with dry, dense linen cloth while hot (quick stroke over the tip is all they need). These tools saw a lot of heavy duty use over the years without deterioration.
Wet sponge is out of question because fast cooling makes tip's protective surface material to crack.
If you plan to avoid stress in your hobby, invest in good tools. WELLER has my recomandation for quality and longevity. |
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| Pjotr |
Hi,
These ones sell in Europe for around EU20.-
http://www.aoyue.com/en/Product.asp...OLE%20SOLDERING
Full blown genuine Chinese but excellent quality :D We have several in our production workshop and the tips last very long. After half a year of continuous use they are still in perfect condition.
Cheers ;) |
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| davidlzimmer |
Best thing to clean a hot tip is blue jeans :D
Spend more time cleaning and tinning than soldering. That's always produced my best results. Whether using good or cheap. |
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| thejohn |
| Blue jeans work well... leg hairs don't... so beware of the day you're working in shorts! :devilr: |
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| BrianDonegan |
I can vouch for the Auyoe as well. The US Distributor is http://www.sra-solder.com/
I got the 968. Very nice. Auyoe uses the same tip type as Hakko. |
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| mpmarino |
| Is there an echo in here;) ? |
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| BWRX |
Holy smokes! I didnt even see your post mpmarino. Sorry for the echo. They are worth trying though.
Edit: echo removed ;) |
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| coolmaster |
Of late, there's been quite a few Hakko knock-off's from a few companies located in mainland China, ironically having the same model number on sale in the Far East(soldering station, smd rework..you name it). They retail for less than half the price of a Hakko real deal. Here in Malaysia and Singapore, Hakko is widely purchased and used by a lot of the big name semi-con and electronics factories. Nothing beats the quality, parts and support from Hakko which they manufacture/assemble out of Singapore.
Personally, I'd put my money on a Hakko anytime as having used one for more than 10 years and still strong albeit replacement bits, now saving up to get a proper station with an assortment of bits to suit most DIY projects or repair. |
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| mpmarino |
| quote: | Originally posted by BWRX
Holy smokes! I didnt even see your post mpmarino. Sorry for the echo. They are worth trying though.
Edit: echo removed ;) |
That was too funny!
I placed an order for the Auyoe cheapie. My ~$300 Hexacon therm-o-track went south on me when I inadvertantly touched the tip to a cap that had a 120V charge. The Hexacon replaced a ~$250 OK industries model that was stolen.
That's too much money spent. The Hexacon was a superb station only about a year old. Certainly my fault but it made me realize that a quick slip cost me 300 clams. A theft cost me $250. The next will only be 40 bucks
:)
- and there will be another...it's inevitable. |
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| dnsey |
| quote: | | These ones sell in Europe for around EU20.- |
Do you have details of an EU / UK supplier, please?
Thanks. |
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| dnsey |
| Thanks Pjotr, I've sent them an enquiry :) |
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| ! |
The Aoyue station is a very good value. It's sold under many different brandings in the US as they will make a front faceplate with your company's name on it if you did enough volume to make it worthwhile. There is minimal gain in paying more for an equivalent Hakko, mostly minor cosmetic things like a finer finish on the wand handle but that is more of a photo opportunity than an issue in use. Maybe the Hakko would last longer. Maybe the Aoyue would. Flip a coin.
The Aoyue uses the typical ~ 6.5mm OD / 4mm ID tip size used by most medium wattage ceramic element irons, like the Hakko 900M. Thus with Hakko's name more popular, the cheapest way to get a lot of tips or different shapes is probably buying the Hakkos on ebay/etc. My Aoyue had a bit of cement residue where the thermal sensor was installed in the heating element, which needed lightly sanded to make the Hakko tips work as they are barely thicker, smaller ID barrel than the Aoyue but you wouldn't know by looking, they're very near the same. |
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| mpmarino |
I got my Aoyue yesterday from the link Brian D. posted earlier. It seems quite nice. It was well packed and even came with an extra ceramic heater. Today I won a $10 ebay auction for the required parts to fix my Hexacon station!
OVERLOAD:bigeyes: |
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| Pjotr |
| quote: | Originally posted by mpmarino
OVERLOAD:bigeyes: |
At least you have now one to repair the other :D
For daily use I have 2 at my workbench standby. One with a fine sharp tip and one with a 2 mm screwdriver tip. Much handier than changing tips.
;) |
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| mpmarino |
| quote: | | At least you have now one to repair the other |
he he, all I need to do is put my tip and outer iron sleeve on the ebay hexacon to get it going! I can't wait, here's why:
I've used the Aoyue quite a bit in the past couple of days. It works nicely. Certainly much more nicely than a good Weller soldering pencil at twice the price -BUT it is nothing compared to what I'm used to. For light jobs it is great, like soldering a component into a board or something similar. Under heavy load, like soldering some snap in caps to a copper pour it loses heat fast. It does the job but I'm used to an iron that can hold it's temp more consistently and dump more heat. I found that with the Aoyue it's hard to get that shiny - hot - quick touch solder joint on heavier stuff.
-still a great value though:) |
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| Pjotr |
| quote: |
Under heavy load, like soldering some snap in caps to a copper pour it loses heat fast. It does the job but I'm used to an iron that can hold it's temp more consistently and dump more heat. I found that with the Aoyue it's hard to get that shiny - hot - quick touch solder joint on heavier stuff.
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Yes true, but that holds for any iron of 40 – 50 watts with a small tip. The trick is to use a heavier tip like a 3 - 4 mm screw driver tip -> the long ones. These tips have much more heat capacity so the temperature doesn’t drop to much. For real heavy work you’ll need a 80 – 100 watts iron anyway.
;) |
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| ! |
| quote: | Originally posted by Pjotr
Yes true, but that holds for any iron of 40 – 50 watts with a small tip. The trick is to use a heavier tip like a 3 - 4 mm screw driver tip -> the long ones. These tips have much more heat capacity so the temperature doesn’t drop to much. For real heavy work you’ll need a 80 – 100 watts iron anyway.
;) |
So true, I find a 3.2mm chisel plus a second wand with the original conical will cover over 80%, swapping tips gains another 10%, and the last 10% is handled by a dual range 150W gun style. Almost forgot the 2mm 45' for SMD. |
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| mpmarino |
I don't entirely disagree.
My $300 station can replace the heat much faster than the Aoyue with equivalent size tips. A larger tip certainly would help but is seems less necessary on a better product. The difference in cost is almost ten-fold - and happily the difference in performance isn't:) |
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