got a digital soldering iron and have a tempature related question

[arcade1213]

hi i just got a madell sd-06 digital soldering iron and i was wondering what the best tempature is for soldering on arcades.it seems to go all the way up to 300F but im guessing thats too hot since i dont want to destroy any of the electrcal components.thanks for your time and have a nice day

[MonMotha]

300F is downright cold.  I doubt you'd even melt most solder at that temperature.

I usually do 310-325C.  Some people like things a little cooler (285-300C) so that they can keep the heat in place longer without damage, while some like things warmer (~350C) so that they can work quicker.  Rarely any reason to go over 350C unless you need to solder to enameled wire, in which case 410-425C is about right to melt the enamel off.

Lead free solder melts at a higher temp, so you'd probably need 325-350 to work that at a reasonable pace.  Just don't keep the heat on the board too long.  The phenolic type material used on monitors especially doesn't like getting too hot.  The FR4 stuff used for most game boards is more tolerant.  I don't think I've ever damaged a component severely enough for it to not function due to hand soldering heat, though I've broken things due to overheating while desoldering (which tends to take more time).

[bkenobi]

300 doesn't seem that hot to me.  I thought most irons got up to ~600?  Maybe you are saying 300°C which would be 572°F?

[arcade1213]

sry about that manual says 150C to 450C

[Beretta]

not sure about temperature but i just use a 15watt from radio shack, works fine i've never killed anything from to much heat with it, but i have destroyed a lead or two on a circuit board.. as someone pointed out usually desoldering, i just totally F'ed up a play station pad i was working on it was very poor quality knock off and i was actually trying to super thin wire they used on the analog sticks they detached (actually wire ripped) from teh main board.. think it had other problems away my try to fix later.

[CheffoJeffo]

I usually go 300-320C

[northerngames]

not sure about temperature but i just use a 15watt from radio shack, works fine i've never killed anything from to much heat with it, but i have destroyed a lead or two on a circuit board.. as someone pointed out usually desoldering, i just totally F'ed up a play station pad i was working on it was very poor quality knock off and i was actually trying to super thin wire they used on the analog sticks they detached (actually wire ripped) from teh main board.. think it had other problems away my try to fix later.

same here 12+ years of soldering hundreds of things and never had a problem with a radio shack 15-Watt

I have been through 4-5 but they all die some time expensinve or not

I also use the desolder pump that you plug in and it to works great on anything I ran across so far except surface mount components but usually they can be stacked over one another and dont have to be desoldered.

I am not sure what temp they run at but so far it is perfect to melt solder but also not hot enough to ruin anything.

[arcade1213]

thanks for your help guys i really appreciate it.