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Thanks guys.
soldering station recommendation
- Thread starter Junk
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Amazon.com: Hakko Soldering Station, FX-888: Home Improvement
Holy moly you're not kidding. Not a single review lower than the full 5 stars. I might have to get me one of these since I just discovered a mod for my 62 that'll require a little PCB soldering. Be nice to use a finer tip than what my Radioshack station has.
rusty_tlc
Dain Bramaged Member
Check out the Pace systems, same construction with the heater in the tip. I haven't used a Metcal station in a while but the Pace stations seem to have a tighter hysteresis loop.Yeah, the metcal stuff is nice. I have an mx500 system and can't imagine using anything else.
The <10 second tip warmup time and the ability of it to put heat at the surface of the tip versus a heater cartridge far from the tip allows for near instant response to temperature variations due to the object you are soldering.
When I've had to go back to using prehistoric cartridge heater based irons like the typical weller/hakko stuff I'm reminded just how superior the metcal system is. But it certainly costs far more than an $80 - $150 soldering station
I've always use a hot air tool to remove SMT parts unless they are near things that shouldn't be heated up too much...
I tend to use 0603 size as my smallest form factor discretes, 0402 is getting a little tiny for my eyes, even with a good magnifier
cheers,
george.
The PCB's I work on are usually less than .5" square so I use a microscope. Component density is around 14 to 20 parts in less than 0.25 sq in, hot air would just blow everything off the board.
The "two iron" method works pretty well. I can even pull SOD 23 and SOT 23/ SOT 423 parts off without damage to the part or board.
I never even could find a price for the Metcal stations, but they definitely looked expensive as hell. The Pace soldering station I could probably get if I could justify enough projects for a $415 station.
I find it interesting though that Pace makes a point of talking about lead-free solder. Does using lead-free solder shorten the tip's life? I had been under the impression that lead based solder was nearly impossible to find nowadays, and that silver-bearing solder as opposed to lead-free was best for electronics/electrical project soldering.
I find it interesting though that Pace makes a point of talking about lead-free solder. Does using lead-free solder shorten the tip's life? I had been under the impression that lead based solder was nearly impossible to find nowadays, and that silver-bearing solder as opposed to lead-free was best for electronics/electrical project soldering.
I can't tell you about tip life, but you'd have to be soldering hundreds of connections to see any difference, imo.
Lead based solder is no longer used for potable water supplies, but it's still used in electronics. I use Sn63 (37% lead, 63% tin) for most electronic stuff. Sn96 (96% tin, 4% silver) melts around 70F higher than the Sn63 if you've got some soldering to do near hot parts ofthe engine.
Not to hijack, but George, I can remember working with/calling on Metcal when they started up at the end of Marsh Road...thx for memories.
Steve
rusty_tlc
Dain Bramaged Member
Lead free solder melts at a higher temp and requires a more aggressive flux which affects tip life.
Pace talks about Lead free because of the European RoHS initiative which bans lead in electronics assemblies (Japan has a similar ruling.) So far this hasn't been an issue in the US but most electronics suppliers are complying with the lead free initiative as a matter of course. So commercial manufacturers want soldering irons that can work at the higher temps required by lead free solder.
If the Europeans and Japanese got their heads out of their asses and realized that electronics use less than 1% of the lead annually world wide we could stop spending $$$$$$ of extra cost on lead free processing. BTW cars and appliances use the other 99% and are largely exempt under the RoHS initiative.
Sorry, I'm a bit passionate about this topic, but it has caused me no end of unnecessary grief. Now they have come up with yet another POS bit of regulation called REACH.
More crap for me to deal with.
As was mentioned above lead based solder is not used in plumbing and hasn't been for many years.
I prefer lead based solder for electronics because the lower temps allow for easier soldering and induce less stress on components. Bottom line; go to Radio Shack and get a spool of 63/37, it will be the best choice for most automotive work.
Lead free solder melts at a higher temp and requires a more aggressive flux which affects tip life.
Pace talks about Lead free because of the European RoHS initiative which bans lead in electronics assemblies (Japan has a similar ruling.) So far this hasn't been an issue in the US but most electronics suppliers are complying with the lead free initiative as a matter of course. So commercial manufacturers want soldering irons that can work at the higher temps required by lead free solder.
If the Europeans and Japanese got their heads out of their asses and realized that electronics use less than 1% of the lead annually world wide we could stop spending $$$$$$ of extra cost on lead free processing. BTW cars and appliances use the other 99% and are largely exempt under the RoHS initiative.
Sorry, I'm a bit passionate about this topic, but it has caused me no end of unnecessary grief. Now they have come up with yet another POS bit of regulation called REACH.
As was mentioned above lead based solder is not used in plumbing and hasn't been for many years.
I prefer lead based solder for electronics because the lower temps allow for easier soldering and induce less stress on components. Bottom line; go to Radio Shack and get a spool of 63/37, it will be the best choice for most automotive work.
Interesting point on lead supply and needing more aggressive flux for lead free solder. When soldering electronics with lead, is the toxicity of it even a conern of any kind? I would think not with the small amount used.
Now you say lead-free solder requires higher temps too, so is it safe to assume that that would shorten the life of the components being soldered? I would think silver based solder would be longer lasting than lead, but if the component's life is shortened by the higher temperatures needed, that would pretty much render a better solder joint a moot point.
Now that I'm gaining more knowledge and having a better understanding of the fundamentals (and getting practice with fixing some old stuff) I'm getting much more comfortable with my soldering skills.
Ha, dare I even ask what REACH is, or would I be happier not knowing?
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rusty_tlc
Dain Bramaged Member
Lead toxicity isn't a concern if you follow proper practices, ie wash after handling solder etc.
Most components can take a lot more heat than they see during soldering, when I worked in the hybrid industry we used a gold tin eutectic soldering process to attach raw die (Integrated circuits with no packaging) to a ceramic circuit board, that took very high temps. It's been a long time so i don't remember the exact temps. Lead or tin makes very little difference in how long a solder joint will last, I've worked on vacuum tube radios from the 30's and the solder joints were fine.
REACH
European Commission - Environment - Chemicals
Don't get me started.
Most components can take a lot more heat than they see during soldering, when I worked in the hybrid industry we used a gold tin eutectic soldering process to attach raw die (Integrated circuits with no packaging) to a ceramic circuit board, that took very high temps. It's been a long time so i don't remember the exact temps. Lead or tin makes very little difference in how long a solder joint will last, I've worked on vacuum tube radios from the 30's and the solder joints were fine.
REACH
European Commission - Environment - Chemicals
Don't get me started.
