Solder and Iron

[Jack]

Another advantage of a temperture controllled station is that I use it, with a different tip, for melting P-tex when I repair ski bottoms.

Jack

[esso]

ok guys i returned the last 70/30 solder and i went to radioshack but i didnt find the 63/37 so i bought the 60/40 ROSIN-CORE solder .032" .
is this ok or should i have the 63/37 one , also do i need the flux cause i dont know if this one got built in flux , i really need help with the flux thing
i dont know if it should be applied or not , please help
cheers

[Peter Florance]

ok guys i returned the last 70/30 solder and i went to radioshack but i didnt find the 63/37 so i bought the 60/40 ROSIN-CORE solder .032" .
is this ok or should i have the 63/37 one , also do i need the flux cause i dont know if this one got built in flux , i really need help with the flux thing
i dont know if it should be applied or not , please help
cheers

All of Radio Shack's 60/40 should be rosin. You might try to find some thinner solder as it's easier for beginner (.020 - sorry I forgot to mention that) but I use .032 as well, so enjoy. You should practice on some wires to the point where you can flow the solder by heating the wires on one side and applying the solder to the other. Until you can do that, don't touch the MS kit.

A tiny dab of solder on the iron to 'wet' it is ok, but the joint should heat the solder and not the iron itself.

[esso]

what do you think about the 62/36/2 rosin core solder , it got silver bearing and as far as i know its idle for surface mount devices as we dont have in egypt the normal 63/37 so

62/36/2 0.022"
or
60/40 0.032"
please advice

[Peter Florance]

what do you think about the 62/36/2 rosin core solder , it got silver bearing and as far as i know its idle for surface mount devices as we dont have in egypt the normal 63/37 so

62/36/2 0.022"
or
60/40 0.032"
please advice

Actually that's very good solder.
Should work very well.

[yngndrw]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to chime in with some advice for people.

First of all regarding the soldering iron: The tip is everything - A bad tip can make a great iron poor and a good tip can make a poor iron good.

My advice if you're not going to be soldering much is to get something like the Antex CS18 - Antex tips are nothing short of great, the iron performs well and is very cheap. Be sure to get the silicone wire as it's heat proof and also easier to handle.

Alternative if you are going to do a lot of soldering or have money to burn, look at the Weller irons. I personally use a Weller WMP - It's 65 watts so it heats up damn near instantly, is cool to hold even at high temperatures and is very small / light. I use a Weller WDD power supply for it which I got for cheap from Ebay, but nearly all of the Weller power supplies can be used on their irons so it is easy to find a cheap one which will work.

The standard tip on the Weller WMP however is a great example of my tip comment however. It's not a bad tip, but it's the wrong tip for through hole work. It's tiny so it is hard to get any heat transfer, as such I have to use a small dab of solder to transfer heat even when de-soldering and I also need to use a very high temperature. (400C, while solder normally melts at around 190C.) The correct solution would be to just get a bigger tip but I run out of money.

Next, solder: If you're not soldering much then I'd advise using leaded solder. It's not the safest but is fine for small amounts of use and it melts really nice. Lead-free solder just doesn't seem to do exactly what you want it to.

In short: Tip is everything (Both in therms of quality and using the correct shape / size.), use leaded solder if you can and get an Antex if you're on a budget or a Weller if not. (In my opinion.)

Hope that helps someone.

[trakkies]

I agree about Antex - but they too do a temperature controlled solder station. Although not perhaps as easy to find used as Weller.
Years ago, I built my own solder/de-solder station. The cost of de-solder units then made this worthwhile. It has two outputs for two Antex irons - to save the hassle of changing bits regularly. And have two further handsets fitted with the less common bits I use. The de-solder handset is Pace. I also made up a solder dispenser with four sizes of leaded solder.
As you might guess I do a lot of soldering. ;-)

Here's a pic of the solder station:-

[miked]

after years with a crappy radio shack soldering iron I sprung for the Aoyue 936 station offered on Amazon for $40, came in the other day. Real pleased with it, been soldering for years with junk but this is a very very nice upgrade.

0-35w with 1degree C temp control

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VINMRO

[trakkies]

This maybe a dumb question but I've got everything ordered and I'm ready to start assembling my Megasquirt but I'm not too experienced in the soldering department. What type of solder and iron do you guys reccomend and where do I get them?


Thanks

My thoughts are assembling an MS ain't for a newbie to soldering or kit construction. There are far too many 'gotchas' .
I'd practice on a few simpler kits. Jaycar have several that might appeal, as well as giving you the experience. But make sure they work properly after building them. If not, fault find until they do.

The trouble is that it isn't just the soldering. Each component must go in the correct place and many are polarity sensitive.
Sounds simple - but most will make mistakes when starting out.

A good quality 50 watt low voltage temperature controlled solder station is IMHO well worth the expense as it can be used for pretty well any electronic soldering. Go for one where you have a good choice of readily available bits. In the UK, that would be Antex or Weller. Like all tools, it pays to buy quality. Second-hand off Ebay, rather than some new no name at the same price, if money is tight.

Most readily available multi-core solder is too large (1.2mm) Search out some 0.8mm leaded stuff.