Kit soldering

[testraub]

Can anyone recommed a soldering station that works well assembling the kits? I have some soldering irons both low and high powered, but am looking to make things as simple as possible. BTW Ordered my first 16 channels today! Looking forward to getting it ready for the 2010 season!



Tom Straub

[bisquit476]

This is what I use, highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WESD51-Digital-Soldering-Station/dp/B000ARU9PO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1266968724&sr=8-1

There is an analog version available also

http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-Analog-Soldering-Station/dp/B000BRC2XU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1266968724&sr=8-2

[Ponddude]

I have the one that bisquit listed first...

Built many electronics with it, including LOR's kits.

[TGabriel]

Check out

www.testequipmentdepot.com/weller/solder/wes51.htm

$94.99 on sale

This is where I bought mine.

Thomas

[Anthony in Houston]

Tom

I have soldered 17 of the PC kits and used the fixed watt 25 and 45 irons from sears. When I first purchased these they were under $12 total. If you are doing just one kit I dont see why you would want to spend the money on one of the expensive soldering stations.

I have not had any problems with the irons or the boards.


Anthony

[-klb-]

I really like my WESD51, but I would not buy one for just one, or even a few kits. You can build them just fine with a pair if reasonably cheap irons. So far, I think I've soldered over a dozen controllers, a couple of FM transmitters, and a bunch of custom rewired LED strings. And that is just the Christmas lighting uses.

And, I do use it in different rooms, for different purposes, but portability is not its strong suit. I do have two or three other irons for use outside and away from the house.

[steve synek]

I did 8 boards with the sears/ weller irons. Then I bought a ZD-929 station on e bay for less than $50 for my next 7 boards. I like the soldering station much better and would recommend one if you plan on doing more than just one or two boards.

http://www.mpja.com/productsdirect.asp?dept=480&main=79&item1=15860+TL&item2=15845+TL&item3=15140+TL&item4=15141+TL&item5=17204+TL

And when I bought it, I ordered a few extra tips that I haven't used yet. I wish I had bought a second replacement handle so that I could just swap handles with different size tips instead of changing out the tips for different phases of work on the control boards. (You need tools to change tips, the handles just plug into the contol unit)


Steve

[Max-Paul]

I am going to have a good laugh if only I could see a few faces when they read this post.

For the majority of the soldering on the PC kit, a good tinned 25 watt pencil iron will do the trick. I hope you where paying attention, I did say majority. Now for the minority, things like the fuse holders and the male PC mounted stab connectors. I prefer to use something with some real wattage. I have an American Black Beauty 100 watt pencil iron. Ya, lots of heat to get the joint hot fast, so I can get off of it fast. Its the slow heat up that causes the circuit path to lift off of the board. It's great to be able to get that large copper foil on the neutrals at the bottom of the board to heat up and accept the solder. Tried to do this area with the 25 watt iron and it is near impossible. I suspect that there might be some with cold solder joints due to the difficulty getting things hot enough for the solder to flow. Now I have been soldering for some time, so I know that you do not want to sit in one place to long with an iron of this wattage.

[Gary Levelius]

For those of you planning on doing a fair amount of assembly, there's also a firm I highly recomment and they do carry both commercial grade and hobby grade equipment. They've been at our local hamfest/computer show for the past five years and have been a pleasure to deal with. They are Electronic Assembly Equipment, Inc and have a website at www.eaesales.com. Most of the equipment is factory refurbished but carries full manufacturers warranty.

-Gary-

[jimswinder]

Okay...stupid question (since I am looking at doing about 30 kits this summer).

I see the stations can adjust the temps...is this basically the difference between a 25 watt iron and a 100 watt iron?

[TGabriel]

That is correct, plus you can change the soldering tip also.

Thomas

[Max-Paul]

Jeff please do not quote me if you are not willing to quote enough so that the meaning does not change. What I was saying is that a well tinned 25 watt soldering iron will do a good job soldering the majority of the board. But I also noted that it is not enough heat / wattage in my opinion to do the stab connectors.

As for wattage and temperature. No, these two are not the same. I could have a little 25 watt soldering iron that is just fine for soldering in a small resistor or small diode onto a circuit board with a .05 circuit path. But if I take that same 25 watt iron and try to solder a 12 ga wire into a hole on a circuit board with a 2" x 3" copper pad on a circuit board. Well no matter how hot your make the iron, you wont have enough wattage to get the joint heated up to a temperature to cause the solder to melt. Even if you get the solder to melt at the joint of the iron, wire and copper foil. It might not flow to the other side of the wire / copper foil.

Think of it this way and it might help. Wattage is another word for power or horse power. You need more horse power to get a bigger job done. And I suppose along that same line of thought. Temperature is like speed. So a thoroughbred is fast, but lacks in actual power. Where as a draft horse is slow, but has a lot of power to get the big job done.

Actually both irons have a replaceable tips..

[bisquit476]

I would like to make an edit on my previous post. I too used a 25 and 40 watt soldering iron to solder some of my boards. The main problem I had with the Weller 25 and 40 watt iron is the lack of available tips. The supplied tip on the 25 watt is way too big to solder the joints on the boards we use. I had to grind it down to a point, which removes the coating, making it harder to tin correctly. As shown in the picture, the center tip is a 25 watt original supplied with the iron. The one on the left is one I ground down to use on the boards (BTW - the tip on the left originally was ground to about the same point as the 40 watt tip, but through the time it was used for soldering, part of it either melted or was worn away), and the one on the right is the 40 watt tip, which was too small of a tip for the large joints.

My final comment on this is, whatever kind of soldering iron, gun, or station you choose, make sure it has different size tips available. It will make your soldering life a whole bunch easier if you do.


Attached files

[Dave Turvill]

Here is what I consider a great deal on a temp controlled soldering station from an outfit called Circuit Specialists for only $41.95. I do pinball and amusement game repair for a living and I have several of these around my shop and on my service rig. I just ordered my first 32 channels in DIY form and am confident that they can handle it.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/6438