+1,000,000,000
I say this every single time a soldering iron/soldering station thread comes up. I’m ALL about “Budget”, but when it comes to a soldering station, you get what you pay for.
PPtk
it looks damm good buddy, how do you like the Roche? I’ll bet its been bugging you it being so near yet so far. Nice job. 8)
I thought you would like that Weller. Your work looks pretty damn good.
Looking good! Congrats!
-Garry
Ouchyfoot, you just convinced me to buy a proper soldering station. I’ve been doing a few mods lately with a cheap soldering iron, and while I’ve been successful the soldering is pants, especially soldering vertically onto a mounted star. Is that the Roche F8? Nice, I’ve had my eye on that one for a while.
Ouchyfoot, as a first timer your skills already surpass those of 99.999999% of all those who live in china. GOOD JOB!
Thanks everyone for your patience.
I know it seems like "that ouchyfoot" has sure been asking a lot of dumb questions for the last few weeks, but I have been methodically picking you brains, and gathering knowledge from the best. I couldn't have done it without you, and this little baby.
I use a soldering iron that has 48W I believe, adjustable temperature and very often I run at 295°C/560°F. With a normal thin but not long tip. If I would use a longer and thinner tip it needs more temperature. That is for Sn63Pb37 1mm solder wire.
If you have something lead free etc. you might even go 305°C for normal operation.
Depends how well your tip heats up and holds the heat.
And remember to flux flux flux, it makes all the difference at least for me.
It’s so much easier to solder when both parts are covered in flux.
I have a flux pen/brush.
I run about 650F for leaded and lead-free… 700F for lead-free if the parts are loaded with thermal mass…
PPtk
I realize this is a very old thread but it seemed the appropriate place to post. I just completed a very simple mod on my L6,
and had trouble soldering the leads to the sink pad. It seemed I did not get it hot enough at first. With some time and cursing I managed to get it done. My question is when you solder the wire to the sink pad do most of you use solder paste or regular rosin core solder?
Thanx, Steve
Yes, I just use regular ol’ rosin core solder.
-Garry
I use solder paste for everything. It’s just a lot easier to work with than traditional rosin core solder.
I use regular rosin core solder, along with liquid flux I made myself with 99% isopropanol alcohol and rosin flux paste.
That combo easily solders about anything.
Especially with DTP stars already mounted to the shelf, you gotta hit it hard and fast.
What I’ve done is had a bit of liquid flux (blue stuff, looks like washer-fluid) just wetting the pad to be soldered, had the soldering iron good’n’hot with a small molten blob of solder dangling off the tip, then hit the wire+pad with the already hot blob, wait for it to sizzle away some, then when you’re sure it’s a nice hot weld, pull away the tip.
This way the iron doesn’t have to melt and heat up the room-temp solder, the liquid “wets” to the pieces in a nice wide area vs just the hard contact-point of iron-to-whatever pinpoint, and you get the parts hotter, faster, so you don’t cook everything in existence.
But, do whatever works for ya…
Thanks all for the comments. So its seems there is no big secret and I’m on the right track, just need more practice.
Lightbringer, I ended up using a method as you described. My big issue was the heat sinking to the light body. I could actually feel the heat on the head of the light. Next time I will crank up the irons heat and hit it hard and fast as you described. I may try the paste method also. Also have to work on keeping the iron clean.
Steve.
P.s. the light now pulls over 9 amps (not sure exactly how much: cheap meter reads to 10 amps only). Used a xhp70.2 p 4000k and MTN FET+1 driver.
Yeah, there are a few “issues” with that technique, as high heat can “harden” the tip (my own terminology, ie, solder doesn’t wet to it anymore ’til you dress the head again).
And lots of people make the mistake of using low-wattage irons to be “safer” with delicate electronics, but when you gotta hold the iron to everything that much longer, you’re heating up everything as the heat spreads, vs a quick in’n’out with high heat, before the heat gets the chance to spread out too much.
Yes, I agree. A few passes on some fine sand paper should fix any issues with the tip.
Once again, thanx for your response. I appreciate your help!
Steve
No worries. Have fun…
I’m an old do do when it comes to Solder. But welding I can do. Overhead. Vert up\down, pipework and cast no problems.
I’ve found that when I use an old electric frypan from caravan and heat the items up a bit.
It’s a LOT easier to fuse the parts.
“”My question is (sorry if this is off topic) is when I receive my sinkpads, how do I reflow an LED to it when there is no solder on the pad? Are there any tutorials out there?“”
Type in “Adventure Sport Flashlights”. He has some good tutorials on Soldering etc.
Plus he’s very interesting\enjoyable.Funny. to watch.
@Macka17, that is right.
For example, trying to solder a spring to a metal body is extremely challenging even with a 150W monster of an iron that I have.
Using the electric skillet and raising the temperature to 100°C, then even my regular soldering iron could easily do the job.
TLDR: If you have big fat parts to solder to, I would advise using an electric skillet to raise the overall temp.