What tool do I need?

[juntjoo]

what's the best tool for soldering and de-soldering? I've only used those cheap irons which always need cleaning and don't get hot enough. I've seen little torches that I think are advertised for soldering, I suppose I'm looking for something with hot heat and small focal area so I don't burn surrounding stuff up. What tool do I need?

 

[Martaine2005]

Try a decent temperature controlled soldering station.
It should have hot air too.
But it all depends on what you’re soldering.
If you’re soldering copper pipes, then a flame is best.

 

[juntjoo]

Try a decent temperature controlled soldering station.
It should have hot air too.
But it all depends on what you’re soldering.
If you’re soldering copper pipes, then a flame is best.

Hot air? Like a heat gun? I have one of those. How many watts do I need. I think these cheap irons I use are like 60w

 

[poormystic]

:}
With electronics, you usually only want to heat the solder joint and not the whole component. (Lots of components fail permanently if they get overheated.) So a hot air gun isn't usually a good choice.
As for what tool you really need, it all depends, as Martaine2005 suggests.
How about post a photo or 2 of what you want to desolder.

 

[Martaine2005]

No, not a large hot air gun.
Soldering/desoldering stations have a small pen type heat gun. Its small nozzles help direct the heat. Perfect for SMD work and preheating large ground planes.
Do a WWW search for soldering station.
Most cheap stations have a heating element and fan in the handheld unit, these are not very reliable and some have caught fire.

 

[Jim-The-Dinosaur]

That entirely depends on the phase of the moon, lol. Quite a bit also depends on your skill with the tool.

What are you soldering/desoldering tomorrow morning?

I went most of my life with a bog standard Weller 40 Watt stick for almost everything PCB including early surface mount, and carry a small open flame pencil butane for field work like automotive wire connections.

About 20 years ago a kid told me I'd be way happier with a proper temperature controlled station. I didn't really get it, as I didn't feel like I needed to be any happier, but meh .. I ponied $200 bucks and have never regretted it on the bench .. But I could have lived without one. I rarely ever adjust the temp.

Cute story .. I was sharing a shop a few years back with a pair of younger mechanics. Good lads, couple of hundred grand in Snap-On kit, the works, but still a bit moist if you know what I mean. They had a salt belt Crown Victoria in one day for a front wheel bearing replacement. I watched them struggle for nearly 2 hours with this and that bit from the drawers, sweating, cursing, air hammer, etc. And they always teased me a bit about not having a big roller cabinet full of money. Around lunch they let the pride go and asked the old cooter what would he (I) do .. I grabbed two bolts, two washers, and two nuts .. popped out two wheel studs, and used the bolts and nuts behind the flange to jack out the bearing in a few minutes with one combo wrench. They stopped teasing me.

My station has IR preheat and air along with the iron .. and when I need that, I need that. But most of what I do can be done with ye olde 40W stick.

Now desoldering is a book of it's own. Still all about the proper application of heat, but what are you doing with it?

Is this a repair with a known bad component on a PCB? Then the goal is to remove the part and preserve the board. I usually just cut the part off with snips, and then remove the legs. I've developed about a thousand techniques depending on the component and board material. Sometimes I use braid (desolder wick), sometimes I blow a hole out while heating with compressed air or a can of "dust off". I also have an iron with a squeezy bulb that does the same thing.

If I'm salvaging components and don't care about the board, I break out the propane plumbing torch.

I've seen guys do reflow in a toaster oven, and I've seen foot long gas heated irons that looked like medieval torture weapons. Indeed I have a 300W electric iron with a half inch diameter chisel tip myself. Although admittedly, never found a use for it.

In short, there is no best tool for all jobs, but you can get yourself out of a jamb with a ciggy lighter.

Personal comfort is also a real thing here. I've been a guest in shops and absolutely hated their kit ..wasn't mine, didn't feel right, and ugly cold booger solders.

I'm old school hard and don't believe that you can just spend the right amount of money on kit and suddenly become great.

Now I've evolved some .. I remember having a file at hand, re-tinning every 5 minutes, Going through an iron every few months .. I'm not certain what the tip of my station is made of .. but I think they made Wolverine out of it.

And a damp cloth has been replaced with a dish scrubby looking thing and a pot of rosin.

So I suppose you're looking for more of an answer than anecdotes? Ok, although I'm not affiliated, I'll give thumbs to my Chinese knock off "yihua" YH853AAA station .. I like the way the stick feels in my hand, and it's done duty for a very long time. The cord to the mother ship could use another foot. But that said, there are lads out there heating butter knives on a hot plate to reflow some bit of a guitar amp.

Some .. or many will disagree with me, but I've never found added value in temperature control. I run my stick hot, but I have a bit more than half a century in knowing how a joint "feels" .. and yes, they do feel a certain way when it's all good.

If that's something you think you need, then a triac light dimmer in series with your stick? Or whack a mole on Ebay. Weller was the name .. but I'm sure it's been since sold to someone who gives less than zero f**ks to brand quality.

Another anecdote before I tap. I'm a really good welder. (We all say we are .. part of the secret handshake). But my kit is a total joke. Even I know it.

So last week I refreshed the lower 6 inches of a salt belt 17 y.o. Toyota with metal salvaged from a discarded clothes dryer. Totally wrong wire in the rig set up for quarter inch rather than paper thin sheet .. Now welding is neither brazing or solder .. but still heat and alloys and how to apply the latter. If you do your time you get the feelz. Job done.

I would personally suggest that any budding tech, or just enthusiast, come up the hard way with a dumb stick. A hot poker if you will .. I once repaired a QFP on a $6000 Minolta board with a dumb stick .. what amounted to a very hot hammer. I was shop god for a day.

All that said .. if you're having issues. I've had a few rolls of janky solder the last few years. At one point I thought that I may have had a stroke. What? I forgot how to solder since 1973? Nah .. just crap alloy.

Hope I was somewhat helpful.

 

[juntjoo]

:}
With electronics, you usually only want to heat the solder joint and not the whole component. (Lots of components fail permanently if they get overheated.) So a hot air gun isn't usually a good choice.
As for what tool you really need, it all depends, as Martaine2005 suggests.
How about post a photo or 2 of what you want to desolder.

It's just the +/- wires of an ebike battery. 12g I guess. I want something hot and versatile. Last time I had to use my propane torch on my soldering iron. Don't want that hassle. I'll be reconnecting a wire and adding xt60 out to a few of these. And I'll do some soldering here and there

 

[juntjoo]

No, not a large hot air gun.
Soldering/desoldering stations have a small pen type heat gun. Its small nozzles help direct the heat. Perfect for SMD work and preheating large ground planes.
Do a WWW search for soldering station.
Most cheap stations have a heating element and fan in the handheld unit, these are not very reliable and some have caught fire.

So no heating element in the handle? How many watts

 

[Martaine2005]

There are heating elements in the handle but the circuitry and fan are in the main units box.
The cheaper units have the element, fan and circuitry in the handheld unit. The circuit either fails or the fan fails causing overheating and fire.
Not all of course, but it has been a problem with cheap units. £60 and under.
You could try a 100W iron.
My station is max 700W. I rarely go higher than 260-300.

 

[poormystic]

Yes I would have suggested a 50W or 100W iron. E-bikes are outdoors equipment and the wiring is heavy, so a little 30W circuit board iron is likely to be too weak to be able to heat the joint quickly enough... it might not even melt the solder before something ugly happens. Big, meaty, hot copper irons go well on big jobs.

 

[juntjoo]

Yes I would have suggested a 50W or 100W iron. E-bikes are outdoors equipment and the wiring is heavy, so a little 30W circuit board iron is likely to be too weak to be able to heat the joint quickly enough... it might not even melt the solder before something ugly happens. Big, meaty, hot copper irons go well on big jobs.

Thank you

 

[poormystic]

OK, you're Grandma and here are the eggs. (I'm sorry Grandma this is a compulsion.)

Make sure everything is clean. In metalwork when I was 11 we were taught to use a drop of hydrochloric acid to clean dirty terminals - you're an adult so be sure to use the acid safely.
Clean the soldering iron the same way if you have to, then heat and tin the iron so that there's a hot molten skin of bright liquid solder on the bit. Bring the metal-wet bit up from under the work you want to heat if possible - heat flows up in a gravity field, so heat from beneath.
Be ready with your fresh solder in the other hand and, as soon as the work gets hot enough, use the heat of the work to melt the solder directly into the spot where you want it. (Don't melt the solder on the bit, melt it on the work.) Have everything organised- try to be quick and neat.
Take the heat source away, and don't bump things while they're cooling.
When all has solidified the solder should be bright as a mirror - if it's not, then something has gone wrong, such as contaminants; bumping; insufficient heat; etc.

 

[juntjoo]

OK, you're Grandma and here are the eggs. (I'm sorry Grandma this is a compulsion.)

Make sure everything is clean. In metalwork when I was 11 we were taught to use a drop of hydrochloric acid to clean dirty terminals - you're an adult so be sure to use the acid safely.
Clean the soldering iron the same way if you have to, then heat and tin the iron so that there's a hot molten skin of bright liquid solder on the bit. Bring the metal-wet bit up from under the work you want to heat if possible - heat flows up in a gravity field, so heat from beneath.
Be ready with your fresh solder in the other hand and, as soon as the work gets hot enough, use the heat of the work to melt the solder directly into the spot where you want it. (Don't melt the solder on the bit, melt it on the work.) Have everything organised- try to be quick and neat.
Take the heat source away, and don't bump things while they're cooling.
When all has solidified the solder should be bright as a mirror - if it's not, then something has gone wrong, such as contaminants; bumping; insufficient heat; etc.

Thanks

 

[juntjoo]

OK, you're Grandma and here are the eggs. (I'm sorry Grandma this is a compulsion.)

Make sure everything is clean. In metalwork when I was 11 we were taught to use a drop of hydrochloric acid to clean dirty terminals - you're an adult so be sure to use the acid safely.
Clean the soldering iron the same way if you have to, then heat and tin the iron so that there's a hot molten skin of bright liquid solder on the bit. Bring the metal-wet bit up from under the work you want to heat if possible - heat flows up in a gravity field, so heat from beneath.
Be ready with your fresh solder in the other hand and, as soon as the work gets hot enough, use the heat of the work to melt the solder directly into the spot where you want it. (Don't melt the solder on the bit, melt it on the work.) Have everything organised- try to be quick and neat.
Take the heat source away, and don't bump things while they're cooling.
When all has solidified the solder should be bright as a mirror - if it's not, then something has gone wrong, such as contaminants; bumping; insufficient heat; etc.

That sounds like stuff I probably have around the house slowly burning a hole through the floor. So that's the best cleaning agent? What else could you find around the house that a drop or two would clean well?

 

[juntjoo]

OK, you're Grandma and here are the eggs. (I'm sorry Grandma this is a compulsion.)

Make sure everything is clean. In metalwork when I was 11 we were taught to use a drop of hydrochloric acid to clean dirty terminals - you're an adult so be sure to use the acid safely.
Clean the soldering iron the same way if you have to, then heat and tin the iron so that there's a hot molten skin of bright liquid solder on the bit. Bring the metal-wet bit up from under the work you want to heat if possible - heat flows up in a gravity field, so heat from beneath.
Be ready with your fresh solder in the other hand and, as soon as the work gets hot enough, use the heat of the work to melt the solder directly into the spot where you want it. (Don't melt the solder on the bit, melt it on the work.) Have everything organised- try to be quick and neat.
Take the heat source away, and don't bump things while they're cooling.
When all has solidified the solder should be bright as a mirror - if it's not, then something has gone wrong, such as contaminants; bumping; insufficient heat; etc.

I actually have a lot of cleaning to do like tile lots of nasty stuff on surfaces. Are their such products that use that as primary ingredient or just grab some pure and dilute to your desire or what?

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir juntjooz]
I'm still short om PRECISE info on what two types of junctions of connections are to be soldered together ?
Will it be one or 2 #12 OR 14 stranded copper wires . . . .or even LARGER gauge, considering the sometimes potentially huge current demands of an E-bike . . . . . . . that are to be soldered to each other . . . . .or a single #12 (PLUS) OR #14stranded copper wire to a battery holder terminal which is already being tinned?
What say you ?
73's de Edd

 

[poormystic]

I actually have a lot of cleaning to do like tile lots of nasty stuff on surfaces. Are their such products that use that as primary ingredient or just grab some pure and dilute to your desire or what?

I'm no chemist, and this forum does electronics.
I have no general remarks to make about hydrochloric acid's suitability for anything other than what I already said, except that it is dangerous and should be treated with respect. Understanding the potential hazards of things you don't understand can come from bitter experience or from prior research - you pick.

 

[ahsrabrifat]

what's the best tool for soldering and de-soldering? I've only used those cheap irons which always need cleaning and don't get hot enough. I've seen little torches that I think are advertised for soldering, I suppose I'm looking for something with hot heat and small focal area so I don't burn surrounding stuff up. What tool do I need?

The best way to solder is to use a Temperature-Controlled Soldering Station. For example, Hakko FX-888D, Weller WE1010NA, TS100 / TS80P etc. These heat up quickly and stay hot. Temperature is adjustable (ideal range: 320°C–400°C, depending on the job). High thermal mass tips don’t struggle with large joints or ground planes. They come with replaceable and fine-point tips for precision.

For desoldering old components, a Hot Air Rework Station like Hakko FR301 or 858D will be fine.

Here you may find some more insights on how to solder perfectly.

Tips for soldering ---How to solder perfectly. - Technology - PCBway

1.Tools for Hand solderingElectric soldering iron/ stand/ Hot air gun/ Soldering head etc.Conditions for soldering:Solderable parts/ Clean soldered metal surface/ Suitable flux/ Proper soldering tempe...

www.pcbway.com