soldering iron advice please

sarabande

sarabande

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I have an occasional use for fine soldering work on low voltage LED driver units, so bare wire dia under 1mm.

Amazon has some quite useful looking Chinese kits from around £20 up to Metcal equipment in the £n00s.

What experience of and recommendations for sets in the £20 to £30 range please ? And is 'hollow tube' soldering the answer to delicate work ?
 
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sarabande said:
I have an occasional use for fine soldering work on low voltage LED driver units, so bare wire dia under 1mm.

Amazon has some quite useful looking Chinese kits from around £20 up to Metcal equipment in the £n00s.

What experience of and recommendations for sets in the £20 to £30 range please ? And is 'hollow tube' soldering the answer to delicate work ?
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I brought one of these on the back of this review, paid about £15, its been great, and having an on off switch on the iron is great
Review: CXG E90W Temperature-Controlled Soldering Iron
 
£20 isn't going to buy much of a soldering iron for fine work Tim. I use a Weller TCP iron and soldering statio. Not cheap, but i've had it maybe 30 years.
 
PaulRainbow said:
£20 isn't going to buy much of a soldering iron for fine work Tim. I use a Weller TCP iron and soldering statio. Not cheap, but i've had it maybe 30 years.
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Have to disagree with you there, Weller are very much behind the curve these days. The TS100/ TS80 broke the mould on buying overpriced Weller kit for hobby use, and cheap irons such as the one I linked to above are great kit for the money and well suited to fine work.
 
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I have a Weller station but it's for standard 240v stuff and the 'nose' is too bulky to deploy into to areas round the PCB boards even with the fine tip. :(

I have a feeling you are right and the proper kit is going to cost me, but the cheap stuff that Northwind has pointed to is v attractive.

I
 
sarabande said:
I have a Weller station but it's for standard 240v stuff and the 'nose' is too bulky to deploy into to areas round the PCB boards even with the fine tip. :(

I have a feeling you are right and the proper kit is going to cost me, but the cheap stuff that Northwind has pointed to is v attractive.

I
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If you can step up to a Ts80 at around £60 they are very good irons, there are thousands of reviews of them on YouTube...
 
I've only ever had two soldering irons, both were less than £20 and have been more than adequate for every soldering job I've needed. 12v or 240v and all sorts of modelling work too. The only reason I have two is one is at home and the other on the boat.

I would like to get a gas one for the boat so I can use it when not on shore power.
 
sarabande said:
I have an occasional use for fine soldering work on low voltage LED driver units, so bare wire dia under 1mm.

Amazon has some quite useful looking Chinese kits from around £20 up to Metcal equipment in the £n00s.

What experience of and recommendations for sets in the £20 to £30 range please ?
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The One True Soldering Iron is the Antex, in particular - for your purposes - the Antex 18W with silicone lead, available for just over £30 from Amazon: Soldering Iron CS18 from Antex with Silicone Cable (S48J470): Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science. It's definitely worth paying the extra for the silicone mains lead, which is immune to full tip temperature of the iron.

The 25W version is slightly cheaper (Antex S58J470 XS25 230V Silicone BP Soldering Iron, Yellow: Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science) but is probably a bit overkill for 1mm wires.

I have both, plus the 12V version (also 18W, I think) which lives on the boat and beats the pants off gas powered ones.
 
I have several soldering irons.
I quite like Weller TCPs, I've fished a fair few out of client's skips over the years and mixed and matched parts to give me 3 or 4 good ones.
Also have a 12V version which I actually paid for.
I've also got a pair of small Metcals.
I often use two soldering irons as I do prototype work on surface mount stuff and use an ion on each end of a component.
I have a pair of cheap ones from Rapid. I bought these because the tips are cheap.

Tips are the thing. You need different sizes. You need to replace them from time to time.
Modern work involves lead free solder, which is very hard on tips, because they run hotter. Amateur or development work is harder on tips than production work, because the gaps between use give the tip longer to oxidise. You may be able to avoid that by using tin-lead solder, but commercial products are full of dolphin-friendly lead-free solder, needing hot tips. Some modern irons reduce the tip temp when you put the iron in the stand which helps a lot.
The best iron in the world with a knackered tip is no use.

As RichardS said/implied, a hot, powerful big enough iron to get the solder melted quickly, get the job done and out again in 2 seconds is key to a good job.
Also get some flux. The sort 'no clean' in a marker pen is handy.
 
I've several Antexes and Wellers, a couple for blowlamps and inherited 'thing' which must be about 100W, but the TS100 is my favourite for small stuff. The big plus for boaties is that it runs on mains or 12V.
 
RichardS said:
It won't suit everyone but since I bought my gas soldering iron which came with a sharp pointed tip, I have never used my electric ones.

The gas one is so much hotter, even with the flame doused, that all it needs is a quick touch and the solder flows before there is any major onward heat transfer.

Richard
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I agree with Richard.

I have a soldering station in my electronics workshop but generally go for my Dremel gas soldering iron.

If you do go for an electric do go for one with reasonable power otherwise soldering will frustrate you as the solder will take too long to fuse with the possibility of overheating the components.
 
Gathering all kinds of useful information from contributions - thanks to all.

I have small butane gas gadget, but it's on the boat, and I'd probably be put in the internet stocks if I drove down and collected it.
 
lw395 said:
Tips are the thing. You need different sizes. You need to replace them from time to time.
Modern work involves lead free solder, which is very hard on tips, because they run hotter.
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Also lead-free solder melts some older copper tips. It's quite spectacular. I used to run robot-building days in schools which started with a morning of soldering, and I always gave schools the choice between lead-tin or lead free solder. Those who sensible (imho) chose lead-tin invariably had fewer burns by the end of the morning, simply because it's so much faster to use.

That was with a bag of 18W Antexes (Antices?), by the way. I also have a 500W (sic) Weller soldering gun which I inherited from my old man. It's surprisingly good for small work, if you can get the tip in, because it heats the workpiece up almost instantly.
 
There's a fundamental difference between the lower cost Antex soldering irons, and the more expensive Weller type "soldering station" type irons. The latter will maintain a fairly constant temperature, regardless of ambient temperature, and the size of materials being worked. The lower cost Antex irons fluctuate in temperature during use, according to ambient temperature, and the size and type of materials being worked. I had a Weller for twenty years before the difference clicked. Gas irons are handy to have, but can be very destructive in the hands of an inexperienced user, especially when working on electronic equipment. I once saw a British Gas fitter destroy an Alba turntable when he attempted to solder in a replacement volume control using a butane blowlamp.
 
elton said:
There's a fundamental difference between the lower cost Antex soldering irons, and the more expensive Weller type "soldering station" type irons. The latter will maintain a fairly constant temperature, regardless of ambient temperature, and the size of materials being worked. The lower cost Antex irons fluctuate in temperature during use, according to ambient temperature, and the size and type of materials being worked. I had a Weller for twenty years before the difference clicked. Gas irons are handy to have, but can be very destructive in the hands of an inexperienced user, especially when working on electronic equipment. I once saw a British Gas fitter destroy an Alba turntable when he attempted to solder in a replacement volume control using a butane blowlamp.
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Have you had a look at the TS100 that several of us have mentioned? Temperature control is very precise, a soldering station in your pocket really.
 
elton said:
There's a fundamental difference between the lower cost Antex soldering irons, and the more expensive Weller type "soldering station" type irons.
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Of course, but the OP did ask for basic £20 - £30 iron recommendations. Antex do soldering stations too, by the way.
 
anoccasionalyachtsman said:
Have you had a look at the TS100 that several of us have mentioned? Temperature control is very precise, a soldering station in your pocket really.
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It looks very good, but I wonder how it will stand up to rough treatment in a toolbox. I've had my Weller since 1984, and it's never let me down. The iron itself is powered by 24v from the station/rest, so it's very safe.
 
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