Soldering iron and LD kills

Hey everyone,

I bought today my first welding (soldering-ill be using soldering) iron. I have soldered before in a class i had, but i dont know anything about the irons.
It happens i was cruising downtown today and saw a tools shop, and decided to see soldering irons. Without knowing much, i bought a 60W one. Problem is, i done some testing with another LD i had here, and i notice the iron was soooo hot, so i just went like on/off with it, to get a lower temperature.

but after doin all that, i came to the forum and hit the famous search button above, revealing people usually use irons from about 15w to 25w or even 30w...

As the diode i soldered was <5mW, i wanted to know how a dead LD light looks like (i tried to search but i couldnt find any topic clear enough, as lots of threads have people stating their LD is dead/killed/died. As i dont want to mess up with my PHR when it gets here, as im goin to connect everything and then turn it on on the dorcy.

im also thinking to go to the store again and get a 40w iron that was being sold there as well...they were pretty cheap, thats why i dont bother buying that one.

thanks for everything (hope i wont bother people too much).

Should i buy that ur can i stick with the 60w one without any problem?

LordKaramazov said:

i came to the forum and hit the famous search button above, revealing people usually use irons from about 15w to 25w or even 30w...

Should i buy that ur can i stick with the 60w one without any problem?

Click to expand...

You answered your own question....

It also depends on the solder you are using. You may encounter trouble with a lower heat soldering iron. DX has a decent adjustable temp soldering iron.

yobresal said:

It also depends on the solder you are using. You may encounter trouble with a lower heat soldering iron. DX has a decent adjustable temp soldering iron.

Click to expand...

Can you link it?

DX has a search button too

Peace,
dave

Personally I would only use the 60 watt iron to connect big lugs on terminal strips.

Certainly get the lower wattage iron, it will be better, Oh and use good quality lead/tin solder. The newer "lead free" stuff is hard to work with.

...i use a 25W

i once bought a 40w....and it was WAY too hot...so your 60w is out of the question.

hmmm... I see.. Im goin to get the 40w iron, but if i knew where i could get a 25w here id do it instead...the 60w one is does the soldering nicely, but for the diode i just think its too much and im afraid ill kill the diode.

Thanks for all the input!

José

You could always rig something up like this
$10ish DIY Variable Temp Soldering Iron Controller

My friend got me a nice 5-40 watt iron for my birthday, I almost always have it on 40 watts, but I "heatsink" components with copper alligator clips, and if I cant I set it to 20-25 watts.

These make nice heatsinks.

Hemostats from Blue Lake Products

I use a 48w, but it can be set in power, so I usually don't set it all the way up, just above the temperature needed to melt the solder easily. ESD safe soldering irons are even more expensive, but I'm not sure how much this really makes a difference. If it is properly grounded, it shouldn't be a problem.

Bluefan said:

I use a 48w, but it can be set in power, so I usually don't set it all the way up, just above the temperature needed to melt the solder easily. ESD safe soldering irons are even more expensive, but I'm not sure how much this really makes a difference. If it is properly grounded, it shouldn't be a problem.

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ESD isn't that hard to deal with, I have a bunch of things plugged in on my bench, so my bench is grounded. If you are really afraid of ESD, just touch yourself and your iron to your bench occasionally. Provided you have a bench, of course. If not I highly recommend it.

I have a cheap wrist strap, I'm carefull with anything that has caps and I place the stuff on a cheap ESD bag or something conducting. I think that's more than enough.

Touching your hot soldering iron isn't very nice. If you're paranoid of your soldering iron, just check if it's grounded.

Bluefan said:

I have a cheap wrist strap, I'm carefull with anything that has caps and I place the stuff on a cheap ESD bag or something conducting. I think that's more than enough.

Touching your hot soldering iron isn't very nice. If you're paranoid of your soldering iron, just check if it's grounded.

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I meant touch the iron to the table haha, don't touch your hand to the iron.

It's not hard to put a grounding rod on your workspace. Copper pipe with a wire attached to a ground source. Cost is like $3.