soldering iron
 

Anyone have any recommendations on a soldering iron. Planning on starting my COP build and leaning towards a MS

if I were just doing those projects then a $7 45 watt one from radio shack....

RE: Soldering Iron
 

I bought a Weller WES51 for my MS project. It works great. I mainly used the tip that came with the kit, but there are a few areas which require a smaller tip. The best price I found at the time was from Amazon.com.
It was about 85.00.

Probably overkill, but that's how I roll.

Werd :cool:. Your run of the mill radioshack iron will serve you just fine for those projects.

My radioshack iron has made it through 2 megasquirts and 2 tips in the process. At this point, I cannot replace the tips anymroe. The set screw seized and broke off.

I think at this point i'm going to upgrade. I'm doing lots of soldering these days.

Edit, something nice about this little iron is the ease at which I can solder things in tight areas like under the dash.

Serious? That was always a big hick up for me wen thinking about a MS build. I've soldered before and I'd be cursing my soldering iron half the time. Maybe a better question would be what kind of solder everyone uses.

I'll build it for you if you pay for the parts :)

Mine has lasted over 50 MS builds. lolz.

Alright, i'll just buy another radio shack iron to replace the broken one i have now. You've convinced me :)

Thanks everyone. Low cost is bueno

I'm threadjacking my own thread if that's possible.

What gauge wire is everyone using when building their COP harness?

im not saying it's great by any means. I used good ones. Im just too cheap to buy a real one. It serves it's purpose.

It's honestly hard to believe that unit running my car was one of 50 made with a cheap iron.

I was just out there starting my COPS harness as well...and nearly put the iron into the wall pointy end first. Good grief I hate soldering.

If I could make solders like Scott I'd be seriously happy...and there wouldn't be so many damn crimp connectors on my car.

I go through a shit ton of tips however and try my best to keep them clean. I pretty much just learned how to solder by doing it. I have no idea if I'm doing it good, let alone correctly.

I really dont know how you guys get so frustrated by soldering. It's like zen for me.

They look like shiny dabs of syrup of an electronic pancake.

To me that's good.

Thing is...I used to be really good at it. Back when I did car audio, I was young and didn't care...and soldered EVERYTHING and it was beautiful.

I don't know what happened, but I can't do it anymore. I did get married in the meantime...I'm sure that's got something to do with it. Now every time I'm out in the garage I live in constant fear that the door is about to open and I'm gonna get to hear some more nagging.

I wish soldering was Zen for me.



I also used to have a really high quality iron that was handed down to me. It would wick up the perfect sized dab of solder and spread it like butter.

Someone mentioned solder, what is everyone having the best luck with? I have some right now and I am going to blame it for my bad soldering.

I'm going to attempt a pnp setup with a spare ignitor. However, I think it will be very easy to convince myself that I will never go back to stock and just splice int to the existing ignitor.

I use .032" 60/40 Rosin-core solder.

Yea but the chicks really dig my expensive soldering iron.

Avoid all the fancy shit. The best solder for manual assembly of through-hole parts is still plain ole' 60/40 rosin-core. I like to use the thinnest I can find. At home, I've got a roll of .025", but if all you can get locally is .032", that'll do fine. You can get it at Radio Shack: Rosin Core Solder (8.0 oz.) - RadioShack.com


As to the iron, just buy the damn Weller WES51. Soldering with a cheap iron is a frustrating experience.

I use two old cheap radioshack 15 watt irons I have. One with a stand to put the hot iron. Better then laying it out and reaching over it and burning the shit out of your arm.

nice sweater

and what appears to be the infamous fetching cat?

I'm going to start blaming that cat for my resets.

Amen. I am so glad I bought a new soldering iron station. I bought mine from CSI, it has a digital read out, and came with a free brass coil tip cleaner. And from my experience, GET THE TIP CLEANER. Its fucking amazing. Three stabs into your it with your dirty iron = clean looking iron in seconds.

This is the one I have. Its great. Circuit Specialists Inc. - Digital Display Soldering Station (CSI-STATION2A)

Oh, check out the promotions tab. If you spend at least 50 bucks, you get a FREE gift, like a free DMM! They used to offer a huge plier set, but they are all gone i guess.

Heres that tip cleaner im talking about. YOu can get it at fry's too.
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7499

that hot tweezer looks awesome.

http://boostedmiata.com/Lars/solderi...t_pwns_joo.jpg

Thats the soldering iron I use daily.

This is why you are still a virgin.

Grrr. I miss the ole' Metcal MX-500s we had at PR&E. You could solder I-beams together with one tip, and then do TQFPs with another.

I got one of those butane powered portable multi-tool irons for use outside. It's nice to not deal with extension cords when you're hanging under the dash. I also usually throw it in my tool kit if I go somewhere.

At a miata meet once, someone's CAS wiring barrel crimps came undone. Luckily I had my butane iron. Otherwise he'd have been stuck.

I've been using the same $7 radio shack iron AND TIP for the last 7 years. I can solder anything under the sun with it. Leg broken off at the chip on a memory chip, got you covered. I used to desolder memory chips from dead xboxs and then solder those chips into good boards for linux and emulators. Anything thats not BGA I can handle.

When the the tip gets oxidized, I hit it with some sand paper, and tin it. It used to be like an inch long, now its like 1cm. Gonna need to be replaced soon.

What I'm saying is, a great iron does not make a great solderer.

I just did mine with 16 gauge

I've had a couple shitty 45watt soldering irons from walmart for years now.. I hate them but they work

If you use the hotter irons (~50w) on small circuit boards, you have to be really careful about applying too much heat. You can warp, burn, and even lift solder pads with too hot an iron.

I have a 10w/15w (don't really remember what it is, the lettering has worn off) that I use to build MS (12 in 4 years, none have failed so far) and I use it to fix xbox's and TVs as well. Make sure the tip is in good shape.

If the iron will be hot and idle for a while (say during assembly), or about to be disconnected (let to be cooled) be sure to evenly coat it with solder. On the next use, wait for it to warm up and clean the solder with a damp sponge. Then re-tin it with a little bit of solder.

Doing this will protect the coating on the tip and make soldering easy. Never sand/file a tip, just replace it.

judgeing from the work you did on my MS baord cleaning up the mess i made you do an excelent job.

I know I'm late on this but the circuit specialists soldering station is very good for the price and replacement tips are cheap.

Circuit Specialists Inc. - CSI Deluxe Station w/Analog Display (CSI-STATION1A)

Just turn the dial to 740 and go nuts.

it's not really what you use, but how you use it. a guy i work with used to solder for nasa, his stuff is always perfect beyond perfect

I use a Master UT200 butane soldering iron. This iron is an animal, yet with the right tip will do PC board work with ease. The variable heat out put is the best part, on its lowest setting it is great for small work. But lets say you need to solder some wires on your car on a cold evening, while it is extremely windy. Crank the heat out put to max, and it makes good solid solder joints. I originally bought it for when I was RC racing, and needed a track side iron to solder my motors, and batteries in. It is 15 years old now and works great still (even the pizo igniter still works).

http://www.masterappliance.com/jmut.jpg

I use a weller but for solder I absolutely recommend Radio shack "high tech" or maybe it's "hi tek" solder. It just flows much better than the regular stuff. Super nice. I've also used ultra premo silver bearing solder but it just wasn't as good as the high tech stuff at radshack.

I've had a old Heathkit Gh-170 soldering station with the same tip for about 30 years and done maybe 150 guitar wirings and lord knows how many other jobs. How on earth are some of these folks going through tips so quickly???

Geek Stuff 4 U - For Geeks By Geeks Thanko USB Soldering Iron

You can use up to two ports in order to get a power supply of 5V / 1000mA. If it's not enough, Thanko offers you the possibility to plug a 9V battery.

http://www.geekstuff4u.com/media/cat...file_52_30.jpg

http://www.geekstuff4u.com/media/cat...file_55_20.jpg

I have one of those "As seen on TV" arc soldering guns that was given to me. It actually works, as long as you can get both of the points on metal. For an emergency, it'll do. Poorly, but it might get you back to town.

Someone needs to buy this USB gun and see if it works. I'm not sure what the point is, other than to run down your laptop battery, but what the heck.

I tend to have my laptop in front of me when I do work, incase I need to look up specifics of build or look at a pdf diagram or something. I have to keep my laptop plugged in anyways :P

looks like a cool 'oh shit' iron.

That soldering iron looks like a blue translucent vibrator. See: Odyssey2 : Rock-in - blue translucent waterproof

http://images.sextoysex.com/CNVELD/WF1244.JPG

That could be dangerous... I remember when I was younger all the Catholic girls had religious statues that looked like dildoes from the back. I'm thinking this was not a coincidence. That's a while ago, obviously...

mini torch

So what's the best semi-portable iron? Should I just get a cheap piece of shit radio schack iron? I feel stupid carrying my weller into the garage and setting up my little iron stand.

Not sure what you mean by semi-portable, but IMO it will either keep you chained to an electric outlet, or not. For soldering anything in the garage or on the car I use a little butane iron. It's a cheap one, bought it on a lark one day at Home Depot and it has worked surprisingly well. It's about as portable as you can get, heats up pretty quickly, and butane refills are cheap. Has a little built-in bipod/kickstand thingy so you can set it down on your workbench, or in my case, on the floor. Mine lacks piezo ignition though, which means I need to keep a lighter handy. Definitely get one with built-in ignition.

They buy cheap irons.

Grrr. I hate it when people have opinions which differ from my own, particularly when they back them up with facts or first-hand experience.
:brain: