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Ok...now I'm jealous!
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: bfauska on April 26, 2007, 09:16:40 pm ---I am a fan of the precision offered by the soldering gun myself :banghead: :laugh2:. I first learned to solder with one of these and good god they can be a bear. I realize they are not designed for intricate stuff, but it's all we had, now however I quite like a basic iron with good heat control.
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Nothing beats a Metcal for precision IMO. Here is a picture of a Metcal handpiece (RM3E) vs. a Weller handpiece (WP25):
And a picture of a whole Metcal station:
For tip geometry, I prefer the fine point conical tips with a 30° bend. The tip in the Metcal vs. Weller picture is too large for my taste, though there were a couple people at work that used that exact tip, as well as some that used a straight tip (no bend). The tip I used looked more like the tip in this picture:
About those solder guns, I've never used one but I can imagine that they'd be about as unwieldy as they get, even worse than a fat-gripped, long-tipped $7 iron. I don't think they are intended for PCB's though. Aren't they made for soldering bigger, heavier stuff...kind of like a tool to bridge the gap between an iron and a torch?
That reminds me of something one of my ex-coworkers told me one night. Her husband had something broken and wanted to know if she could solder it, considering she was a professional and all. She said she didn't have an iron, so he goes out into the shed and comes back with a big old soldering gun. She didn't even know what it was. "What am I supposed to do with that", she aked him, "shoot it?"
Xam:
Wow! The Mets do look nice. I can see where you would definately have more precise control.
Unfortunately, the small amount of soldering I do does not justify owning one of those.
Xam
bfauska:
That Metcal is certainly a sexy little beast. I was kidding about liking the guns, I use a Weller at work, and while it isn't quite as nice as the Mets it's not too shabby. I just found a place that sells them online and it looks like it'd cost about 2x the price of the Weller (~$100) for a useful Met. This is basically what I use, only ours is probably about a decade older (and I am sure it could use some maintenance):
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: Xam on April 28, 2007, 10:31:00 am ---Wow! The Mets do look nice. I can see where you would definately have more precise control.
Unfortunately, the small amount of soldering I do does not justify owning one of those.
Xam
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Yeah, that's why I don't own one (yet) either. I simply don't have occasion to solder much here at home. Give me enough time though and I'll figure out a way to justify it to myself, lol.
--- Quote from: bfauska on April 28, 2007, 03:43:34 pm ---That Metcal is certainly a sexy little beast. I was kidding about liking the guns,
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Yeah, I know. I saw the head-banging-against-the-wall icon, lol...plus you can tell from looking at those things that they would be ridiculously "gawmy" for any job that requires even the slightest bit of precision.
--- Quote ---I use a Weller at work, and while it isn't quite as nice as the Mets it's not too shabby.
--- End quote ---
We had Wellers kicking around where I worked too, I assume from before they switched over to Metcals, because they were all under desks in boxes, though a few diehards still used them. They are high quality irons, no doubt about that, they just lack the "precision instrument" feel of a Metcal. I only used one once. I asked my boss if I could borrow an iron to take home for the night because I needed to do some soldering in a speaker box, and at the time I didn't even have my $7 Radio Shack special yet. He said "Sure thing" and handed me a dusty box with a big old Weller in it.
--- Quote ---I just found a place that sells them online and it looks like it'd cost about 2x the price of the Weller (~$100) for a useful Met. This is basically what I use, only ours is probably about a decade older (and I am sure it could use some maintenance):
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Yeah, I'd take one of those "cheap" Metcals in a heartbeat, as opposed to say, a Metcal MX-500 with all the trimmings for $689 or a bare bones MX-500 for $436. The important part for me is that perfect (IMO) Metcal handpiece and their tip cartridges. Pretty much any of their power supplies would be fine for me, considering only occasional home use. I've seen some of their used lower end models go on Ebay for ~$100. I'll probably get one eventually, in one form or another.
Level42:
Yeah, I'm sure the Met's are a dream to work with, but for that price you can pick up two cabs that need a bit of restoring :D
My "weapon of choice" is this simple and "ancient" Weller Magnastat soldering station.
A friend gave it to me about 15 years ago and it was already "old"/written off then....
The temperature can be changed by different soldering tips, but I have never needed to change it. It is controlled by a magnetic thermostat. This was designed before the electronic termperature controlled stations were developped, but the same principle still works fine and it's still in production in a modernized form:
I think this is fine for the kind of work I need to do on PCB's etc.
Essentials:
1) Any soldering station is always better then a "single unit" soldering iron
2) be sure it has enough power (the station above is 50 watts). A underpowered iron will have to be put (too) long to the pin of the part, so the part can get overheated while the solder is still not flowing.
And the golden tip on soldering is still: let it flow. Let the solde do the work.
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