Gas Soldering Iron

OldMrBrennan83

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Kencollins

What kind of soldering work will you be doing?

It it is wires or anything non precision then you have more options. One of the cheap Duratool soldering stations will be fine, but you might have to replace the Iron attachment or bit every so often. The station is about 60 euro and the replacement irons are 15ish

http://ie.farnell.com/duratool/d00677/soldering-station-48w-240v-eu/dp/1498366

If you will be doing PCB rework or removing and replacing small components then I would recommend spending a bit more money and getting a higher quality iron like a Weller. What you really need is good control and fast heat recovery. If you are trying to solder anything with decent size solder pads it becomes even more useful.

http://ie.farnell.com/weller/whs40/soldering-station-40w-230v/dp/957896

Another point of note is that you NEED good solder. This is possible more important than a good iron. Forget the lead free solder, its rubbish. You need a thin (.7mm or .5mm) lead solder, with multicore. The multicore has more flux in it, so that makes the solder flow better and perform much better in general.

OldMrBrennan83

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Kencollins

anyone can buy from farnell, and i think there is free postage for any order at the moment. I use a gas torch when im working on the car, they are effective when needed! The gas torch on a pcb was a disaster though, no hear control at all!

Maplin dont sell lead free solder at all, i wonder if they are worried about a kid eating it or something!

jack of all

I have an old Portasol iron from Oglesby & Butler in Carlow, I have it years and found it great for repairs, with excellent customer service from them too.

doctorchopper

portasol super pro, best soldering iron i've had

OldMrBrennan83

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gutteruu

Patww79 wrote: »

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B&Q were selling some last year and I stocked up. Or just go onto ebay and put "solder -lead free" into search. This excludes lead free in search. Here is one for example.

jack of all

I bought some lead solder from Halfords (think it was Draper branded) last year, also picked up some from McQuillans in one of their bargain bins- not so easy to get anymore.