12 volt Soldering Iron

:pac:

crabbypaddy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

More of a broom handle than a soldering iron the chinese hakko t12 clones are the closest thing to a decent soldering iron for less than €30.

Yurp, not available in 12v though!

I prefer Portasol / Antex Gascat.

crabbypaddy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Yurp, not available in 12v though!

I prefer portasol/gascat.

When they first came out it was kit form, like this 12v-24v
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Soldering-Iron-Station-Temperature-Controller-Kits-for-HAKKO-T12-Handle-/282078244325?hash=item41ad2c6de5:g:8IQAAOSwL7VWleOj

Neater solution for same thing
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Soldering-Iron-Temperature-Adjustable-12V-24V-72W-T12-Tip-Heating-Core-/281907906710?hash=item41a3054896:g:iyIAAOSwa-dWlcez

No idea what temperature you'd achieve at 12v though, you'd probably want a DC-DC jobbie.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-DC-Converter-12V-to-24V-5A-120W-Step-Up-Boost-Power-Supply-Module-Car-/271640121368?hash=item3f3f035018:g:YXcAAMXQxU5SA5Tt

kadman

So..whats the secret of proper soldering.

My solder repairs always seemed very poor adhesion wise. bLobs of solder
falling off.

So I always avoided it like the plague. Sort of like meddling with a black art.

gctest50

Things need to be clean and non-greasy - clean them after touching them etc

Heat the things - don't just melt the solder onto them


You can see this little robot doing that here, heats things for a few seconds then applies solder :

You can never have too much flux.
Different solders react differently. I still use leaded rosin core electronic solder and a microwave fan to vent the fumes.
You need to adjust the heat to offset the heat dissipation (thermal mass and conductivity) of the component you are working on so non-adjustable irons aren't versatile. Big wires, transformers and heat sinks take a lot of heat whereas through-hole stuff often just needs a flash.
It always helps to prime or tin (same thing) both surfaces before you want to bond them.
Adding solder helps the thermal transfer so when desoldering putting extra solder on the tip speeds it up.

60W is a nice size for an iron it'll do light work without toasting it and it'll do harder to do components if you are patient. Really 150W with adjustable temperature is ideal. but having two means you can dual wield them for them spidery lookin' semiconductors.

crabbypaddy

Flux pen with fibreglass tip is best way of applying flux as you can scrub the surfaces clean as well as flux.

Theres a massive difference in quality between solders too, get a good brand multicore, interflux, kester etc.

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Really 150W with adjustable temperature is ideal.

The pace and weller ones I had to use in the past the handpiece would be so hot they would dry out your hands and you fingers would get chapped and they were only 90-120w.

I was spoiled in the 90s by having a metcal stss on my desk, mine is over 20 years old now and battered but keeps on trucking. Will melt solder in 5-7 seconds after switch on, reaches full temperature in less that 10 seconds for normal tips and about 14 even with a large blade tip.

It produces the heat directly at the tip and despite being 40watts will solder heatsink legs, rf shield tabs, large connectors like N connectors far better than a 120w iron will. If you're patient you can get them cheap on ebay.

This is what 40w of inductive soldering iron can do (with a blade tip it would have been faster)

crabbypaddy

Heres somone showing how its not done
https://twitter.com/br34kthrUr00t/status/747214719820267521

Can't see the twitter because I'm a Luddite.

That little 40W is impressive. But copper?!

Yurp my broom handle is fun but there's a copper coil transferring heat to the brass tip friction fit in a 2mm walled aluminium tube wrapped in copper.. I give the plug 4 jobs to live by the time heat gets to the tip it's had to saturate the body. I was going to add a pwm controller and a temperature sensor but now it's just a proof of concept. Need to heat the tip not the body.

Good fun though using 400A jump leads to solder. The ground just clips onto the big coil. :cool:

crabbypaddy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Can't see the twitter because I'm a Luddite.

That little 40W is impressive. But copper?!

Yurp my broom handle is fun but there's a copper coil transferring heat to the brass tip friction fit in a 2mm walled aluminium tube wrapped in copper.. I give the plug 4 jobs to live by the time heat gets to the tip it's had to saturate the body. I was going to add a pwm controller and a temperature sensor but now it's just a proof of concept. Need to heat the tip not the body.

Good fun though using 400A jump leads to solder. The ground just clips onto the big coil. :cool:

Fire cement or maybe stove rope in the body of a barrel fuse or d fuse if it fits would make a good insulator for mounting.