Find Soldering difficult ??

[Kookapeli]

If you bought a cheap soldering Iron, the chances are that the tip is crappy.
I bought a new 40W Iron for about $18 and right out of the box I was finding it difficult to solder, I was continuously cleaning the tip as it was oxidizing more than usual so I decided to get a tip of Fleabay, only cost about $3 and got some flux too,

I've just fixed a cheapy $1 laser as the connections were badly soldered, for the first couple of connections it was quite easy, for the next few I used a bit of no clean solder and was really easy.

So if you get a cheap a$$ iron and find it hard to solder, dump that tip and get a replacement and see how you get on

 

[Lazerbeak]

Thanks for the tip Kookapeli. I'll try that until I upgrade, the solder never sticks to anything but the tip, even with flux

~ LB

 

[IsaacT]

That is what I had to do not too long ago. I had purchased a really cheap 20 dollar soldering iron from a hobby store and found it was killing everything! The tip was so wide, it ruined any small components I had to solder. I finally bit the bullet and got an adjustable soldering station and a few precision tips from Fry's Electronics and now I have very little trouble until the tip goes bad. Then I just replace it.

 

[Kookapeli]

If you wipe it after every solder joint and keep the tip tinned when not in use it should last a while. Like I said my "New" crappy tip just got oxidised right away and nothing stuck to it

At first I thought it was because I got a lower wattage Iron and thought I sucked at soldering, turns out I'm not too bad and loads easier with flux