cutting42 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Hello, my current soldering iron is getting a little warn out and the tip is degrading so the solder joints are not that clean. I normally solder wire between 12awg to 14awg and my current iron is a 80w but I think that might be a little bit of an over kill for what I do. I don't want to spend silly money on an iron as I don't use it that much so my budget is around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavin28 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 +1 for a gas iron, i have a 60w Portasol kit too (had it over 10 years now), and a bigger 80W ish Weller gas iron for heavy duty tasks (not needed it yet for RC though). The Portasol always goes in my tool bag when bashing, I've even plastic welded broken parts with it in the field Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deafty Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 (edited) Xytronic soldering stations are what I was refering to earlier. They obviously aren' Edited September 10, 2014 by Deafty 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noj Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Thanks for the links, I shall check those out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deafty Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 I just remembered why the the LF2000 was cheaper from the LF3000. It's due to the fact the 3000 has the temperature sensor inside the tip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autobutcher Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Got a Sealy 100w iron from FFX on the bay, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistonhead Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 Just picked this up from my local Maplins for only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 Just picked this up from my local Maplins for only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistonhead Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 Put it straight to work on the ST lol Switched it on, set it to max heat, and was useable within three minutes and didn't show any signs of cooling during use. The only thing i wasn't too keen on was the supplied tip which was a coned point, it didn't let me spread the solder very evenly but i got there in the end, it could do with a flat edged tip to make it easier and i'll get one next time i'm there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Share Posted September 15, 2014 I'm not sure about the one above as some of the reviews aren't great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 Im in two minds between this onehttp://www.maplin.co.uk/p/weller-sp80n-soldering-iron-with-led-light-80-watt-230-volt-r37qaor this onehttp://www.maplin.co.uk/p/50w-solder-station-n78ar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arogon1235 Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 i have that weller one and i can say it is an awesome soldering iron, takes a good 2mins to heat up but once it does it can heat up a 8mm bullet up in 2secs and can solder pretty much any gauge of wire 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 i have that weller one and i can say it is an awesome soldering iron, takes a good 2mins to heat up but once it does it can heat up a 8mm bullet up in 2secs and can solder pretty much any gauge of wirethe thickest wire ill be soldering will be 12awg so do I really need all that power?I think 60w would do it but I haven't found any that I like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wade7575 Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 If your Iron is still working well and it still has a good bit of the Tip left there is a simple trick you can to make it as good as new,I went threw a lot of tip's as everyone I knew in RC always brought me their stuff to solder and I liked it so I could threw between 3 to 5 tip's a year and it got very pricey after a while.The trick is a simple one just remove the tip from the iron and then use a dremel tool with a sanding drum and refinish the tip to the same angle it was or whatever angle you it but here is where it must been exactly this way or it won't work,next put the tip back in the iron and then turn it on then hold some solder against the tip until it melts and take a peace of paper towel and spread it around quickly doing both side's.How I learned this trick was I had always seen cheaper Weller tip's for my iron that were not pre-tinned just bare Copper so I could never understand why it would never work for me when I went to refinish a tip it would never work for me and here was my problem if you let the iron get up to it's max temperature then try and apply new solder it won't stick and the problem is from what I was told is that the copper oxides and the solder won't stick.I was told this from a guy a Weller one time when I got a bad iron and the store I got it from had no more to replace my faulty one.Hello, my current soldering iron is getting a little warn out and the tip is degrading so the solder joints are not that clean. I normally solder wire between 12awg to 14awg and my current iron is a 80w but I think that might be a little bit of an over kill for what I do. I don't want to spend silly money on an iron as I don't use it that much so my budget is around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 Thanks for the advice, dremeling the tip is something that I've been doing but the tip has just degraded and won't come out at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutting42 Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 the thickest wire ill be soldering will be 12awg so do I really need all that power? I think 60w would do it but I haven't found any that I like More power is always good. You can solder faster as the joint heats up faster meaning less time for heat soak of components. Heat soak is what kills electronics and melts plastic ancillaries. My gas iron is 125W rated and is awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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