quality soldering iron

[that-guy]

I'm looking for a quality, but not insanely expensive soldering iron so I can start building my harnesses. right now I have a Bernzo-matic butane soldering iron, but it seems to take forever to heat up, its sometimes troublesome to light, and burns a lot of butane pretty fast

let me know what you've all got!!!

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Depend's on what you want to do with it...

 

[Contract_Pilot]

For Electronics Stuff I have a Hakko 936 Ceramic... Very stable temps.

 

[moonley]

This is a good one: http://www.sears.com/craftsman-professional-dual-heat-soldering-gun/p-00927320000P

It's made by Lenk: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VM3PTU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

It's also sold by Snap-On: http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...roup_ID=675130&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

 

[Flat-rate]

Another vote for the Craftsman/Lenk
Best gun I've ever had, and that includes dads 50yr old Weller.
Heats up fast. With the GM airbag recalls it's getting a workout!

 

[exmaxima1]

I'm looking for a quality, but not insanely expensive soldering iron so I can start building my harnesses.

Can't go wrong with a Weller:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BRC2XU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Look for one with a Ceramic Heating Element... You want steady temps! Weller are not like they used to be! But I am not sure what type of harness he is working on!

 

[Contract_Pilot]

The link to the one on amazon you are just paying for a name Hakko, AOYUE, Etc all use the same heating elements and tips all made in Japan.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VINMRO/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Steinmetz]

I'm looking for a quality, but not insanely expensive soldering iron so I can start building my harnesses. right now I have a Bernzo-matic butane soldering iron, but it seems to take forever to heat up, its sometimes troublesome to light, and burns a lot of butane pretty fast

let me know what you've all got!!!

Why don't you use an ELECTRIC soldering iron?

 

[that-guy]

this will mostly be used on automotive engine and body harnesses. so anything between 16 gauge to 22, or possibly some of the thicker wires of 8ish

 

[that-guy]

Why don't you use an ELECTRIC soldering iron?

that is what I want to do, but before I buy one, I want to know what to spend my money on

 

[Steinmetz]

that is what I want to do, but before I buy one, I want to know what to spend my money on

Don't buy one of those "guns". Depends on the conductor size you are working with. Good irons are widely available. For moderately large conductors, I usually use an American Beauty no. 3138.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Just Look for one with a Ceramic heating element (Stable temps) & Adjustable Temp! Any of the off shore ones really. Can be had for about $30-40.00... Ebay, Amazon, Etc.

 

[skruft]

When I solder wires of the smaller gauges you mentioned, I use one of several brands of small soldering stations like the ones above. (These are meant to be used at the bench, not in a car.) I do this very often because I repair wiring in electric clocks that use these sizes, as well as in cars and boats.

If I had to solder an 8 gauge wire I would use something more powerful like any of the soldering guns mentioned above. I would buy one at a flea market for $5 or so.

 

[BirdMobile]

Can't go wrong with a Weller:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BRC2XU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

That. Awesome iron at a reasonable price. Lasts too... I've been using 2 of those irons professionally for almost 10 years.

I also have a little portable bhutane one I keep in my field kit, PortaSol if I remember correctly. Useful!

 

[ttpete]

Soldering stations are fine for bench work. It also helps a lot to have a basic soldering pencil for work under the hood or away from the bench. I have both.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

If working on Fuel Injection wiring or PCM's get a handel that is ESD Safe! About $7.00 shipped. Or save $7.00 and unplug the harness before soldering.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

That. Awesome iron at a reasonable price. Lasts too... I've been using 2 of those irons professionally for almost 10 years.

I have had my Hakko for 10 Years and My Knock off for 4 Years not a Issue...

 

[BirdMobile]

Found it. This:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003H6LRDS?pc_redir=1410776428&robot_redir=1

Wouldn't want to do much "bench" soldering with it, but as a portable field tool and for automotive dash work, it's da shizz!

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Found it.

Wouldn't want to do much "bench" soldering with it, but as a portable field tool and for automotive dash work, it's da shizz!

Trust me Dash Work anything with steppers or IC's embedded you need to be ESD safe or you risk static zapping it. Butane the temp cannot be controlled well enough and you can get cold or weak solder connections.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Small inverter and 12V source plug in the solder station and use the darn thing portable! Butane = PITA in my opinion as well as expensive!

 

[BirdMobile]

Trust me Dash Work anything with steppers or IC's embedded you need to be ESD safe or you risk static zapping it. Butane the temp cannot be controlled well enough and you can get cold or weak solder connections.

I've always used an alligator clip wrist strap, and the temp is controllable... not as precise as a bench iron, but good enough for occasional wire splices or reflow soldering to boards.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

How many bottles of butane for $20.00 use the 25% coupon makes this inverter $15.00 and works well with the 50-60 watt solder stations!

 

[BirdMobile]

Small inverter and 12V source plug in the solder station and use the darn thing portable! Butane = PITA in my opinion as well as expensive!

Matter of opinion... for occasional use bhutane is REALLY cheap. The iron is only $16, and is convenient as hell... no cords or setup time... just a small hot pencil. An inverter is WAY more expensive and bulky, particularly when combined with a large bench station iron.

 

[BirdMobile]

Just different ways of approaching the same task.

 

[ADSR]

great options in this thread. Thanks guys.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

I've always used an alligator clip wrist strap, and the temp is controllable... not as precise as a bench iron, but good enough for occasional wire splices or reflow soldering to boards.

ESD strap is useless as you are insulated with the handle generally not touching the metal parts of the iron. ESD strap good for handling the parts and touching the wires!

 

[that-guy]

with building my new garage, I will have a bench specifically for things like wiring and other small "clean" work, so no car parts or oily stuff will be over there and the soldering station will just stay there stationary all the time. if need be i'll buy something else a little more portable if I need to do something under the hood or under the dash, but I am far more concerned about using one on the bench where I will be making most of my harnesses from scratch, or extending existing harnesses

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Matter of opinion... for occasional use bhutane is REALLY cheap. The iron is only $16, and is convenient as hell... no cords or setup time... just a small hot pencil. An inverter is WAY more expensive and bulky, particularly when combined with a large bench station iron.

Convient till it dont light or you have to top it off with butane. + Don't forget the fire hazard of an open flame. Every butane one I have seen they don't last long! But people do like to throw away money! And the soldering stations i am talking about are not that big... Soldering is like welding there is a proper way to do it and a wrong way to do it!

 

[BirdMobile]

ESD strap is useless as you are insulated with the handle generally not touching the metal parts of the iron. ESD strap good for handling the parts and touching the wires!

Probably true... but I've never had a problem with it. My theory is that the static charge drains from the iron through the wrist strap when you pick it up.

Anyway, just offering another option... I've also used bench soldering stations working in cars, I just like the simplicity and convenience of the bhutane pencil these days.

 

[BirdMobile]

Convient till it dont light or you have to top it off with butane. + Don't forget the fire hazard of an open flame. Every butane one I have seen they don't last long! But people do like to throw away money!

There's no flame, it's a catalytic reaction.
i've used mine fairly frequently for 12+ years, no failures.
I avoid the "empty" problem, if you can really call it that, by topping the tank off after I use it when putting it away again. Takes about 20 seconds.

i feel like we've become entangled in some sort of ego battle at this point, so I'll refrain from further posts on this topic... I'll close my end of the discussion though by saying I wouldn't reccommend something to other members here that I hadn't personally used, and had good results with. Again, different ways of approaching the same task... the world is big enough for many methodologies.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Probably true... but I've never had a problem with it. My theory is that the static charge drains from the iron through the wrist strap when you pick it up.

No you are grabbing the insulated handle of the soldering iron static goes no where stays in your body. The static generated in a Butane iron is massive when it touches the part you get a discharge! Unless you ground the hot shielding on it.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Not an ego thing at all BirdMobile I have seen solder jobs from butane irons they can be done with lots of practice but most solder jobs I have seen done with them are poor due to heat control just like welding.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

If I was soldering up wires on a custom harness I was going to use for my rig I would want perfect connections as time goes by a bad connection can cause a gremlin that you may have to track down years down the road!

I will leave it with this quote...

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will
have enough to pay for something better.”

 

[BirdMobile]

Not an ego thing at all BirdMobile I have seen solder jobs from butane irons they can be done with lots of practice but most solder jobs I have seen done with them are poor due to heat control just like welding.

Yeah... most people probably just grab the temp control and crank it to max.
It is more difficult to achieve good results with the bhutane iron, I readily admit.
On the static issue, from Portasol's website:
Products antistatic/ESD Safe

Anyway, I like mine... takes a bit more skill to achieve good results, but the convenience and speed outweigh that factor (at least for me...). I would DEFINITELY say that neither mine nor your method is "wrong", just different ways to accomplish the task.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Butane irons depending on size run to Cool or Hot causing poor thermal conductivity which makes soldering difficult! When you apply the solder, the tip generally cools down quickly, and may not have the heat capacity to get a part you are soldering hot enough to make a good solder joint unless you hold it there for a long time or it gets the part to hot and melts the wire shielding and over heats the wire strands making them brittle or solder wicks up the wire making it stiff depending on solder type could be adding resistance to the wire. Now, On to solder there are many mixes and they flow at specific temps use to much heat and you can cook it and make a weak solder joint. Use to little heat and the solder will not bond to the part you are soldering and may crack or break down the road.

Being a tool forum I am sure people like to use the right tool for the right job.

 

[Buster21]

I Have the Weller WES51 and love it, It will do everything you need. I have it on my bench but frequently take it to the vehicle and set it on the floor or on my cart next to the engine compartment. It adjusts from 350 to 850 degrees and you can easily swap out the tips to larger or smaller sizes depending on the work you are doing.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Yeah... most people probably just grab the temp control and crank it to max.

Yea,

I have seen that and when I see people do that I educate them on proper use of the tool, temp control, solder choice, keeping the tip clean etc. The end result they come away with good connections and knowledge!

The solder manufacture will tell you the temp range the solder works best at there are so many mixes of solder so also using the right mix and thickness for what you are soldering is a must for a good solder jolint! But that is another subject for a later thread!

I was in the electronics industry for about 10 years have worked on simple stuff to reflowing "BGA" ball grid array!

I have fixed enough Autoshop/Stereo Shop, Fly By Night TV Shops, solder joints to last a life time!

The Last one was some monkey spliced in a new injector connector and used what looked like plumbing solder from home depot or autozone and the resistance load was to high = PCM error on that injector the shop told the owner that his PCM was bad! No it was a bad splice/soldering job!

Another was instrument panel lights and stepper motors on a GM 2500 PU dash. The monkey that worked on that over heated the PCB and lifted some of the traces off the board and every connection that he kept the traces in tact was cold solder joints!

 

[cheechi]

Butane has its place. Mine isn't as nice as a portasol, but I have been glad I had a 'cordless' one at times, even at the bench.

Soldering stations are the other extreme. Bulky, but portable with an inverter. Why not just get a basic 15w pencil and see if you need more from there? Personally, I do often enough that it's not a great solution for me, but I have seen first hand it's more than adequate to build a vehicle wiring harness from a kit. Megasquirt to be exact.

 

[Contract_Pilot]

Pencil type's unless they are temp controlled same issue as a butane... they are either to hot or to cool for proper soldering. Be aware that temp control is different from variable wattage.