Soldering Iron Recommendations

[Duff]

At Radio Shack a couple months ago I decided I needed to get a fourty watt iron to supplement my fifteen watt pencil type, so I picked up a RS fourty watt pencil type iron for eight dollars. I thought that was too cheap because my fifteen watt one at Wmart or somewhere similar was at least twice as much.

I was thrilled with the massive heat of the fourty watt iron and its ability to desolder big piles of solder quick, etc.

I found out why it was eight dollars about a month later maybe two months, when it failed. I took off the tip cleaned it up and noticed the electronic parts inside the tube just below the tip were completely burned out, shorted or whatever.

Close examination revealed the RS fourty watt iron to be JUNK. An attempt to return it was frowned upon with the statement that it had a thirty day warranty. I can see why.

My fifteen watt weller is many many years old and is an old standby with the original tip that I scrape off with the back side of an exacto knive and then flux and apply a thin layer of electronic type solder to it which I get from RS because solder with lead in it is hard to find anywhere else. Lead containing solder melts at a much lower temperature than the lead free type, apparantly, unless there is some type of lead free I don't know about.

Using flux when soldering in small amounts and tinning the iron first are major preparatory steps you can take to ensure outstanding solder joints.

I'm going to get a quality higher power iron. Where is a source for the good one discussed in this thread?

Thanks in advance,

Duffy

[tunghaichuan***]

Duff,

I buy most of my soldering supplies here:

http://www.wassco.com/

They are priced higher than most though:

http://www.wassco.com/Products/Hakko...02-126612.aspx

Just Google "Hakko 936" and you'll get a bunch of results under shopping:

http://www.google.com/products?q=hak...num=1&ct=title

Some of the stores are rated, so it give you an idea how good the service is.

There are some problems with the new lead-free solder, namely the one you mentioned: it melts at a much higher temperature than leaded solder. This makes it easier to over heat and damage componenets. Lead-free solder also can develop "whiskers" which can short to other parts of the circuit. Not good.

tung