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Help with solder
daywane:
I agree with all above
from Peale
by the way Peale who is the girl in your PIC.?
I hope not your sister or anything like that. One hot girl :censored:
don't want to google any members family here ;D
Chad .... Your set up is better than mine.
was not to long ago I had a HUGE iron and a glass dinner plate and a wet rag
now I have a radio shack plastic plate, sponge, spring and 2 irons
11yr old girl to hold my work unless 7th heaven is on :banghead: then I am on my own
NightGod:
That's Michelle Trachtenberg. Who obviously needs to star in more movies and TV shows.
Level42:
--- Quote from: MaximRecoil on August 24, 2006, 07:09:14 pm ---
--- Quote ---The best of the best in soldering is Weller.
--- End quote ---
I'll take a Metcal MX-500 over any Weller any day of the week. Weller handpieces feel like a 2x4 compared to the Metcal handpiece. Our Wellers used to sit in boxes collecting dust while everyone used the Metcals.
Wellers are high quality to be sure, they just don't have the ergonomics of a Metcal, nor the ease of hot swapping the tips.
--- End quote ---
Sorry, I've never heared of that brand before. But they are about twice the price of a good Weller station. 500 bucks for a soldering station....I thought the 250 for a Weller was already very expensive....
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: Level42 on August 25, 2006, 01:53:35 am ---Sorry, I've never heared of that brand before. But they are about twice the price of a good Weller station. 500 bucks for a soldering station....I thought the 250 for a Weller was already very expensive....
--- End quote ---
I worked for 2 years in a PCB factory inspecting and soldering about 1,000 boards a night; through-hole terminal blocks on every board and surface-mount rework if the SMT machines messed up. These were boards for elaborate fire alarm systems, like would go in a school or a hospital. The boards were classified as "life saving equipment" so they were pretty fussy about how things were done.
The Metcal is a joy to work with. The handpiece is slim and ergonomic, and it positions your hand down close to the tip, giving you far greater control than a typical handpiece that has your hand somewhere near the middle of the iron. To illustrate the difference in control to yourself, try to write with neat penmanship while grasping a pencil in the middle vs. holding it normally down near the tip of the pencil.
Also, Metcal's tip cartridges simply slide into the handpiece and snap in place, and can be easily changed in seconds even while hot. My favorite tip was what we called a "hockey stick" tip which was the perfect size, shape and angle for most everything, from typical through-hole to fine-pitch SMT. Imagine holding an iron down close to the tip much like a pencil, and when you rest your hand down against the board, similar to if you were going to do some writing, the way the tip is shaped and angled naturally positions it flat against the pad and the post that you are about to solder. They are very nice instruments. I only spent a fraction of a second to position the iron against the pad and post and push the solder in on each joint, with perfect fillets every time.
I tried a Weller one night; there were plenty of them kicking around from before they bought all the Metcals, and it drove me nuts. I know they are high quality stations but I couldn't imagine doing production work with one; they are so cumbersome in comparison to a Metcal.
It sounds like you are an experienced solderer; I'm willing to bet that you'd love a Metcal if you tried one. There are usually a few used ones on eBay at any given time, so you don't necessarily have to pay $500 for one. I wish I owned one, but I don't really do enough soldering at home to justify the cost of a Metcal. I make do with my $7 Radio Shack Special >:(.
MonMotha:
For the record, there definately is flux suitable for electronics use. Your solder has some in the middle (hence the rosin-core). There's actually a whole bunch of different kinds. It's mostly useful when doing some odder stuff (like soldering fine-pitch SMT packages or tinning large amounts of wire very quickly). NEVER use acid flux or acid core solder for electronics work. Your board will be gone in a few years.
I have a Weller WESD-51. Fry's Electronics sells them for about $200. For the price, it's very, very nice. It has digital temp control (F/C), so you can just dial up the exact temp you want and it'll hold it (as well as it can). It's a 50W iron, so it can hold temp even on fairly thermally "heavy" loads (I actually desoldered a heatsink with it earlier today). It's not Metcal, but I like it a lot, and it didn't cost me $500+. Metcal is pretty much the end-all, be-all name as far as general purpose soldering gear goes. Some of their irons are so advanced that they'll detect when the solder actually melts and adjust heat immediately.
For casual use, the $7 Shadio Rack special will work fine. They also sell a little stand that you'll find very useful. I might also recommend getting an old floor tile and using that as a surface. They're great thermally, solder doesn't (usually) stick to them, and aren't horrible from an ESD point of view. If you don't have a stand with a sponge, get a sponge. There are special soldering iron sponges, but a high-density kitchen sponge will work, too. You don't want it soaking wet, just moist. Use it to clean oxidation, flux residue, excess solder, and debris off your tip. Use distilled water, if you've got it.
Oh, and remember that hotter isn't always better. The big thing is that you're heating up a sometimes large thermal mass, so you'll cool everything down momentarily when you touch the work. I usually keep my tip at 325-350C. Some say that's a bit hot, but I find it works well. If you go over 400C, you'll start scorching standard FR-4 boards, and that's never good.
EDIT: One more thing: use fairly new solder. Nothing more than 5-8 years old. The flux breaks down over time, and the old stuff usually just gets plain nasty. Radio Shack solder is actually not bad stuff, and I've had good luck with Alpha Metals as well as of course Kester.