What soldering iron to buy?

[Spazi]

Hi guys, I need your opinion on something. I'm in the market for a new soldering Iron, but I don't know how many watt's it should be?

Hi or low? what is best suited?

I have a 25 watt old one, and I've experienced that I had the tip too long on the PCB and I ruined it :(

Hopefully a new one that is more proper to small PCB's should fix this.

Anyone got a tip to give me?

-Spazi

[kristal=]

Hey Spazi,

I've bought this station --- http://www.china-zhongdi.com/zd-931.htm --- for around 40EURs @ reichelt.de / Maybe available in your country, too .

Noob friendly temperature controlled. Soldered a sammichSID with it and now a core32. You can always go cheaper, e.g. with the model ZD-99 with only a knob for temperature control for around 12EURs, but I like the digital feeling and 40EUR was not expensive for me.

What I can also recommend is their smoke absorber -- http://www.china-zhongdi.com/sa01.htm -- got it for around 20EUR.

Of course not necessary, but it is really nice when you're on a soldering spree. No nasty fumes in your eyes and lungs.

:sorcerer: Maybe the hardcore pros are laughing at me, but for me it's really convenient.

Just wanted to share my experiences with this soldering station, maybe someone could contribute his opinion, too.

Edited October 19, 2010 by krisschneider

[Spazi]

Hi Kriss, thanks for sharing. I already got a number of canditates I would like to buy, I'm just looking for one that would suit projects like this. I'm just thinking about heat and not ruining the PCB ;)

[Hawkeye]

Oh, I loved the nasty fumes while soldering the mb6582 :) after a few hours the room was multicolored and my world consisted of elephants that ate rainbows and pooped butterflies.

:-) sorry for being unconstructive, just had to quote that :-)

Otherwise, I have a least-cost 5 EUR 25W soldering iron and it works fine for me, but I understand that you get more comfort in the 40-60 EUR class. Most important is to keep the tip clean and solder properly. Every single solder connection should not take longer than 2-3 seconds, this also makes sure that you cannot ruin your pcb by peeling off solder pads.

[kristal=]

I'm just thinking about heat and not ruining the PCB ;)

If you got problems with heat, I guess a temperature controlled one might suit you best. My idea was ruining stuff with an uncontrolled solder station is probably more likely and expensive than spending money on a t-controlled solder station.

@Hawkeye: I like my respiratory system as much as I like pink elephants. For me there are better ways to get high. :rofl:

[ssp]

i grabbed one of these recently http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190457126345

use it most of the time now its a good set up and works well along side my metcal system.

[mazatta]

I *really* like my Weller WES51.

You might want to check out Adafruit's tools forum, as this type of thread has been brought up there and answered several times: http://forums.adafruit.com/viewforum.php?f=44

Lots of good tips in there, plus advice on things like multimeters, oscilloscopes etc.

[ODM]

Temperature controlled stations are so inexpensive these days, if one's already investing hundreds in components it's better to have a proper tool for soldering as well.

An used Weller station is usually worth it with a new tip, and Aoyue stations seem good quality for price as well. Plenty of new good looking contenders in the market these days.