Soldering iron

HI,

I may want to build a 445nm laser soon.
My soldering is nearly dead so i want to pick up a new one.
On ebay, i found a "micro soldering iron" 8W and 450°C heat.
Had anybody of you experience with a soldering iron like this ?

P.S : Did not know where to put this thread

link, please....

Doesn't look so bad....
I have no experience with this one.
8W is really not much power, but if it's good for SMD, it should be good for LD pins.
I use an el-cheapo 30W pen for 5$ off ebay, and it's almost a little too powerful for
diodes. Well actually no, it's about just the right power, I find.

So, I can't really make a recommendation based on experience, but it looks OK to my. Just my 2 cents.

the recommended wattage is 25. i think and 8 watt one would require you to leave heat on the pins for a while which is not good.

michael.

I use a 50w adjustable temperature Weller WES51 soldering station that works really well. It heats up within a few seconds and the ability to adjust the tip temperature is handy because I perfer the "hot and fast" method. Hotter temps are riskier for the diode but I'd rather user a slightly hotter iron for half (or less) the time than a cooler one.

The "hot but fast" philosophy is definitely a good one.:bowdown:

Machro said:

HI,

I may want to build a 445nm laser soon.
My soldering is nearly dead so i want to pick up a new one.
On ebay, i found a "micro soldering iron" 8W and 450°C heat.
Had anybody of you experience with a soldering iron like this ?

P.S : Did not know where to put this thread

Click to expand...

I just want you to know that when soldering, 250-275 degrees Celcius is optimum. Anything higher, you may burn out the diode because sensitive electronical components like those usually have a rating of 200-250 degrees celcius at 5 second for soldering temp. I would recommend getting a temperature controlled solder. Those last a long time.

Heh I usually solder mine at 700F (355C) for the reason mentioned above. I've yet to kill a diode from heat.

LtKernelPanic said:

I use a 50w adjustable temperature Weller WES51 soldering station that works really well. It heats up within a few seconds and the ability to adjust the tip temperature is handy because I perfer the "hot and fast" method. Hotter temps are riskier for the diode but I'd rather user a slightly hotter iron for half (or less) the time than a cooler one.

Click to expand...

The solder undergoes a phase change from solid to liquid. Such a phase change requires some amount of heat. Untill that phase change occurs heat can flow to the diode, so faster heating would be better. But once solder has melt a higher temperature will heat the solder far more then necessary, so a lower temperature would be better here.
It's not as simple as twice the temperature half the time, I think it's somewhere inbetween. Cooling the diode down once it's desoldered would be a good idea. After the diode comes loose the solder is still melted and hot, and this heat will travel to the diode. Blowing across the pins will cool it down, removing heat that would otherwise end up (partially) in the diode.

Case pins are the most sensitive, those are thermally connected to the laser chip.
I think floating pins like the 445nm and blu-ray diodes only connect via tiny wires to the laser. The electrical isolation from the case also add some thermal isolation, so these diodes should be less sensitive to heat, but I don't know by how much.