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FrozenGate by Avery

Soldering gun






If you want "cheapass" ok but with a real soldering station you get a safe grounded tip, ability to set an actual temperature & it won't kill anything your working on (or kill you). Oh yea & you'll get real quality which usually equals reliability.
Cheap is really only ok if you don't anticipate doing much soldering at all, so you can't justify the cost.
Otherwise you can use a good soldering station for years. Look at Mik's 15 year old one. Tho you don't need to spend $100 to start out, I would go for Aoyue 936 / 937 or better yet Hakko 936 / 937. Thread on Hakko here.
By the way if you look closely Aoyue 936 / 937 does Not appear to be the same as Hakko 936 / 937. Close but no cigar.
 
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kiyoukan said:
So i found something and all i have to say is wow, kinda wish i would have thought of that....
Cheapass Professional Soldering Station
Click to expand...

When I see an "expert" using a Dremel tool to adjust the
tip of his Soldering Iron... I see Moron.. and Crap..

If you want Cheapass like in the Link... take a 6" nail and
heat it up with a blow torch and use that for soldering
your sensitive electronic components...:whistle:


Jerry
 
Damn, that seems like a total idiot with the cheapass solution. I'm not sure wether that page is intented to be serious or just a joke.

Anyway, never sand/grind/etc a soldering tip. Most tips come with a durable outer coating material, covering a softer material (copper) in side. Once the outer coating is through, the tip can be discarded as it will degrade rapidly.

take a 6" nail and
heat it up with a blow torch and use that for soldering
your sensitive electronic components...
Click to expand...

Hmm... i managed to solder some wires with just a cigarette lighter once, which held fine... only recommended for wires and in emergencies ;)
 
i agree with you guys and not grinding tips but if i use my nice 40watt soldering iron and want to turn it down a bit this seems like a good way.
my irons gets hotter than i want and it was a nice iron its a weller brand maybe thats not nice but i have had it for years from my father and it works 100X better than a black and Decker crap one.
I was just trying to think of a way to turn down the power maybe to around 30wats.
 
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A Weller is a High quality Iron... If your Iron uses a standard heater and
tip you could use a Light Dimmer to control your Iron...

But if your Weller uses heat graded tips then your heater has a magnetic
temp switch in the heater and the Light Dimmer control trick may not work..

You can easily control your joint soldering temp by the time you hold the tip
to the joint.

We solder Surface Mount components with a 40 Watt Weller Iron station
using PTA-7 tips without stressing the components...:cool:


Jerry
 
Reducing power with a dimmer usually works on a mains-powered iron (i.e. one without a 'station', that plugs directly into the wall).

Stations with temperature sensing are much better though: they keep temperature constant by applying extra power when required (heating something large). A dimmer won't do this so you have to set it manually when working on small or larger things.
 
Great info thanks.
yeah my Weller is a wall plug but the tip is going to hell. not to mention its fat and ugly, and is corroding away from one side but its old. i could not find one to fit a the shack is there a way to tell what type i got and where to order a new one?
Wow i just found out my iron is only a 25 watt.... i plug it into my "kill awatt metter" and noticed it only pulled 25... seems like the old man was wrong....but this iron get to its full temp within 30sec of being turned on i thought it would have been a higher power too or just the power of quality..
http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html
 
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aren't there different kinds for different sizes?
Or different powers like a 30 watt tip is different than a 10 watt.
Also with that power meter that measures power of my devices i could use a thermal sensor and that to chart out power and temps making it very useful.
weller sp-23
they dont seem many if any tips for it.
Wow my local home depot has them... well getting a new tip i see they only come in packs of 2 but it always good to have a spare.
I was hopping they had a precision tip but a stand cone will do. better than what i have now. a tip that is only half there.i think after a while i am going to get this station it seems good and a great price.
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7307
 
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HaloBlu said:
Looks to be the same station as Aoyue 936.
To keep my tip healthy I use a dry tip cleaning ball, much better then a wet sponge IMO.
Click to expand...

That (brass) ball eventually scrapes the cladding off the tip if it has cladding...
(if you don't do a lot od soldering like we do then it's OK)
IMO.. the best way to clean the tip of a good quality clad tip is with a wet
solder sponge... There is no abrasion to the clad tips at all...
Our Weller clad tips in the shop last for over a year and we solder every
day and use sponges exclusively..:cool:

Jerry
 
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that would explain why the tip on this old soldering iron is like it is.
i use copper scrubbers to clean mine.
So then if i go for the csi or Aoyue i should be happy right? got the protection i need as well as good heat time and adjustable power?
 
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