Soldering Iron or Gun

[pirate]

Which do you prefer a soldering gun or iron for making automotive type wiring connections. Any brand names you recomend? Will only be used for one big project and then only occasionally.

 

[Alchymist]

Gun if not a lot of joints to solder and not real big. Iron if a lot of them and/or large wires to join.

 

[38Chevy454]

I like using a gun better as I can get heat to solder when needed and then no heat when not being used.

 

[Altec]

Gun for general use. I like my little butane iron for tight spaces, and places where I don't have a outlet.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Get a butane powered one. Heats up quicker and is completely portable. Has other uses.

 

[scott37300]

For cars I almost always use my weller butane soldering iron. It's great for auto work. I have a weller gun and also a hakko 936 for the bench work and heavy duty soldering. I haven't come across any wires in a car, besides battery cables, that the butane iron can't handle. I have installed a lot of remote starters and alarms and for splicing into factory wires the butane one works great and there are no cords to fight with.

 

[Wastedwagesracing]

Butane and you'll never look back at the others.

 

[pirate]

Thanks for the info, probably would not have considered butane if it were not mentioned here. Any specific brands better then others? again thanks!

 

[toolfreak]

I just bought a gun to replace the pencil tip iron that I used a couple times before it quit working. I like the gun better because it heats up the wire faster so it doesn't start to melt the insulation before you get the solder to melt. I did buy a pencil style butane to try out but we willl see how it works.

 

[kams1973]

Get a butane powered one. Heats up quicker and is completely portable. Has other uses.

Such as....

 

[dwm]

I like the butane where I can use it. There are places where I can't because the exhaust heat will cause damage to stuff nearby. I never use it for PCB work for that reason, and there are also in-place soldering conditions in the car where I can't use it. Splicing into an instrument cluster harness bundle of 30+ 24-gauge or smaller wires while lying on my back in the driver footwell, for example.

If you're careful, you can use the exhaust heat of a butane on shrink tubing. And of course you can get hot knife and torch tips for them. My butane models are from Iso-Tip.

 

[Jawn]

If you're only working with larger wiring (bigger than 18ga), I'd be inclined to go with one of the high wattage gun types.

I have a cordless iron made by Wahl Clipper, but it's decidedly light duty. Don't expect to solder 12ga wire with it, but it's great for my model railroad stuff.

I have a butane iron too (bernz-o-matic, I think?). It's nice because it has numerous tips - it can be a blowtorch, heat gun, hot knife, or a soldering iron. Also nice that I'm not tied to an outlet.

 

[Wastedwagesracing]

Such as....

My Weller also has a blow tip. I use it for shrink tube.

 

[darkk]

I use a soldering iron. I have 2 nice soldering stations. Digital with variable settings.

 

[5lima30]

I've got a Weller medium duty hybrid gun that I got at Lowes for about $16. It has several different style tips and is not as heavy and bulky as a traditional gun. It even came with a knife blade tip for cutting rope, cord, etc. It also has a thermo boost where you can increase the heat if needed. I rarely use my other iron anymore. YMMV.

 

[larry_g]

I've used both a gun and a pencil type. Either will do the job. More important to me is getting a tool with the correct wattage. If you have a 15-25 watt tool you may be real slow in getting the joint up to temp to do the job correctly and risk cold solder joints. To much power and you melt insulation and have to much solder wicking up the wire. So understand what wattage will give you the best joint.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[srmofo]

I have an iron,2 guns, and a butane.they all have their uses. If you decide to go with a butane torch make sure you use good butane, no gas station stuff. That's why so many touch lighters never seemto work right after the first fill.

 

[Lotek]

I have a Powerprobe branded butane iron, Weller gun, 40 watt pencil, and a soldering station, so it depends... First choice for wiring, esd sensitive stuff, and small stuff is the butane, the only thing I use the gun for is rear window defroster tabs and large guage wiring, but I'm more likely to use heatshrink crimps for that.

 

[Gary S]

We have the Weller butane irons at work. They are always empty when you need them, so first you search for the butane can, then you fill the iron, and then finally you do your soldering. That is much slower than plugging in an electric one and doing the work as step 1.
The only place I like butane is if I need to solder on equipment that is powered up because there is no risk of grounding out a power supply and killing it. For anything already powered down, I like 120v AC irons.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I had a Weller soldering station, I normally just used the iron plugged right in to the wall. That may explain why I had two heating elements go bad. Now I have a clone from Parts Express (I do less soldering these days) and a soldering gun if I need something bigger.

 

[pirate]

Thanks for al the input folks I can always count on good information here!

 

[Mario]

For cars I almost always use my weller butane soldering iron. It's great for auto work.

Same here!