Snap-on Butane Soldering Question

[jride200]

Hi,

I'm trying to decide between the following Snap-on soldering kits and am unsure of what wattage would best serve my needs.

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=yes&tool=hand&item_ID=89606&group_ID=12179&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=yes&tool=hand&item_ID=87696&group_ID=12178&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

Does anyone have any insight? I plan to use it for A&P work as well as general garage and household soldering.

I do know that both are made by Portasol and while the Portasol MSRP might be lower, I've got a Snap-on student discount I can use. I know... I ****.

Thanks.

 

[wellstig1]

Look up solder-it brand butane soldering kits. Th solder pro 150 would be the style you want. Those blue point ones are cheesy and not very well made

 

[chadster1]

I know... I ****.

According to the rules, stating that you **** automatically disqualifies you from receiving the "You ****" award from another member. As someone on here so eloquently put it, you cannot solicit your own suckage.

Edit: I have a Master Ultratorch 1000 in my personal toolbox.

 

[ourkid2000]

Look up solder-it brand butane soldering kits. Th solder pro 150 would be the style you want. Those blue point ones are cheesy and not very well made

There are some cheap Blue Point models available but not these ones.....they are made by Weller and the quality is top notch. I am a licensed avionics technician at a major airline and we use the Portasols almost exclusively.

They are fantastic quality and hold up under tough conditions. Every tech I know has one.

 

[watsong]

I have the YAKS32A (the second link posted). It works great and I would recommend it.

 

[wellstig1]

Here are links to the solder it irons I was referring to. I own both of them and use them daily. Especially good for mobile work like I do because of the fuel cells. I solder anything from 00 to 26 gauge and they have worked very well for the past couple of years.

http://www.etooldirect.com/manufact...ring-kit-powered-refillable-energy-cells.html

http://www.etooldirect.com/manufacturer/solder-it/solder-it-solder-pro-150-automatic-kit.html

About the ones you listed.. I read that earlier from my phone and they looked like the blue point branded ones that they used to carry, those were junk. The re-branded portasols I do not have any experience with.

 

[Ser50]

no one has given him a relevant wattage/usage answer.

and i do not have one either.

i would say the higher the better. its going to have a wider and longer range for you. unless youre doing very tiny tiny stuff.

 

[ourkid2000]

Well, like I mentioned, I'm an avionics technician so any A&P work he plans to do would do just fine using the YAKS22A (15-75 watts).

I have encountered about 90% of the soldering done on airplanes and this thing has never let me down (the lighter duty model he has listed), even doing the very tiny stuff!

Occasionally you will need an iron with a bit more power but it's rare and in those cases the butane irons are not the way to go anyways.

 

[wellstig1]

no one has given him a relevant wattage/usage answer.

and i do not have one either.

i would say the higher the better. its going to have a wider and longer range for you. unless youre doing very tiny tiny stuff.

These butane irons are not fixed outputs, they are adjustable. All of the models that have been listed would be suitable for a wide range of work.

 

[mrshaun]

yaks32 gets hotter and will work well on stereo installs and motorcycle accessory installs.
bigger is better on this one.

 

[07Forester]

I am in the audio business (home and car) and I personally have 5 of the irons that come in the yaks32a kit. The faster you can solder something (meaning the hotter the iron gets) the better. So, in an easy way to put it...get the yaks32a

 

[mrshaun]

my aviation customers use soldering stations, and most aviation places do not allow butane in the tool storage areas.
Home use the yaks22 is fine in most cases. so get both one for home and one for work.

 

[jride200]

Well, like I mentioned, I'm an avionics technician so any A&P work he plans to do would do just fine using the YAKS22A (15-75 watts).

Hey everybody, thanks for all of the responses. Ourkid2000, do you see an problem if I were to buy the "hotter" of the two irons? Just worry that I might not have enough juice. Or, would it be better to get the lower wattage iron so as to have more control? Where do you work, BTW? Send me a PM if you feel more comfortable. Hopefully I don't end up doing much soldering... just don't think I'm much of a sparky. Prefer sheetmetal and hydro systems thus far in my school program.

Mrshaun-I do understand that extremely detailed soldering requires a proper soldering station, but it is my understanding (limited) that if an aircraft mechanic got deep enough into something that the needed a soldering station, they should send it out to a dedicated repair station. And as for av. mechanics not being allowed to have butane, this depends totally upon where you work. The bigger the shop, the bigger the birds, the more rules...

07Forester-don't know if faster is always better, at least not in aviation. That, and I'm not too smart and might need the few extra moments to make a good solder joint!

 

[07Forester]

Hey everybody, thanks for all of the responses. Ourkid2000, do you see an problem if I were to buy the "hotter" of the two irons? Just worry that I might not have enough juice. Or, would it be better to get the lower wattage iron so as to have more control? Where do you work, BTW? Send me a PM if you feel more comfortable. Hopefully I don't end up doing much soldering... just don't think I'm much of a sparky. Prefer sheetmetal and hydro systems thus far in my school program.

Mrshaun-I do understand that extremely detailed soldering requires a proper soldering station, but it is my understanding (limited) that if an aircraft mechanic got deep enough into something that the needed a soldering station, they should send it out to a dedicated repair station. And as for av. mechanics not being allowed to have butane, this depends totally upon where you work. The bigger the shop, the bigger the birds, the more rules...

07Forester-don't know if faster is always better, at least not in aviation. That, and I'm not too smart and might need the few extra moments to make a good solder joint!

The whole point of extremely hot irons is to do things quickly. In everything i've ever read or been taught about soldering is that the quicker the better...you don't want to be heating up x amount of wire to only make a solder joint out of 1/5th of of it. Make sense? It may all be urban legend but I think it's got some meaning atleast.

 

[07Forester]

Also, GET the hotter of the two kits. You be grateful you did. Not to mention if you have the means to....get them both. You WILL find yourself using them for different tasks. I personally have a BUNCH of different irons. Not to mention small torches and the like as well...

Food for thought.

 

[tw33k2514]

even with the discount id get this instead http://www.tooltopia.com/power-probe-ppsk.aspx. but thats just me.

 

[HTGTS350]

I have the larger one, use it constantly, couldn't be happier with it. Previously have had about 6 wellers of differing models and the SO craps all over them.

 

[ourkid2000]

I have the larger one, use it constantly, couldn't be happier with it. Previously have had about 6 wellers of differing models and the SO craps all over them.

Well that's funny because both of those Snap On models are made by Weller. They are, in fact, re-labeled Wellers. Check the country of origin in the link.......Ireland......Weller.

Anyways, this thread is kinda humorous because here we have a bunch of people who don't work on Avionics on airplanes telling a licensed Avionics tech what I should be using. The guy mentioned that he wants the iron to do A&P work which is the USA designation for what I do.........

95% of the time you will be soldering 24 to 20 gauge wires to small contacts or to small printed circuit boards. Anything larger, usually, will either have a crimped ring terminal or a specially crimped pin for military connectors. Yeah, if you can do the job on the bench, by all means, use the soldering station. However, for the times when you can't, the butane is the solution.

We have the larger one available to us in our tool crib, and there's no doubt it's a fine tool, but we rarely need it. The smaller one is just right for tight spots and awkward positions and it has plenty of power to do any electrical jobs on the aircraft. I use mine constantly!

In any case, every tech I know has the smaller one......the larger one is just not designed for what we do. Now if you're going to be using it as a torch.....well that's a different story.

So.....trust my advice here. It's not my first day working on aircraft, I know what I'm talking about.

 

[ourkid2000]

Hey everybody, thanks for all of the responses. Ourkid2000, do you see an problem if I were to buy the "hotter" of the two irons? Just worry that I might not have enough juice. Or, would it be better to get the lower wattage iron so as to have more control? Where do you work, BTW? Send me a PM if you feel more comfortable. Hopefully I don't end up doing much soldering... just don't think I'm much of a sparky. Prefer sheetmetal and hydro systems thus far in my school program.

Mrshaun-I do understand that extremely detailed soldering requires a proper soldering station, but it is my understanding (limited) that if an aircraft mechanic got deep enough into something that the needed a soldering station, they should send it out to a dedicated repair station. And as for av. mechanics not being allowed to have butane, this depends totally upon where you work. The bigger the shop, the bigger the birds, the more rules...

07Forester-don't know if faster is always better, at least not in aviation. That, and I'm not too smart and might need the few extra moments to make a good solder joint!

You have a good attitude by the way......I work for a major Canadian airline that flies the big iron......every tech I work with has the same iron, the Weller PK2C.

I should mention that what we prefer to do is to remove the unit from the aircraft and bring it to the bench and use the solder stations but this is not always possible and that's where your portable iron comes into play. Sometimes wires break off from micro-switches (attached to power levers for example) and need to be re-worked. Try getting your solder station under the cockpit floor........trust me, the smaller Weller is perfect for this.

 

[jride200]

Great, I'm pretty much sold on the smaller of the two irons. Thanks for everyone's help.

Ourkid2000-Could you please comment upon how (if at all) my FAA A&P licenses are recognized in Canada? I've asked this question of my instructor, and he does not know the answer. The reason I ask is that there is at least one Canadian company for which I'd like to work. If more appropriate, PM me.

Thanks again everybody.

 

[Ser50]

These butane irons are not fixed outputs, they are adjustable. All of the models that have been listed would be suitable for a wide range of work.

im going to go out on a limb and say youre illiterate.

i even mentioned their ranges in my post. read harder.

which was exactly what hes asking. and as i said before, i still vote the larger output.

 

[wellstig1]

im going to go out on a limb and say youre illiterate.

i even mentioned their ranges in my post. read harder.

which was exactly what hes asking. and as i said before, i still vote the larger output.

WOW didn't realize we had whiny little girls on a garage forum. This place is for MEN to talk about MAN things, not cry about **** and criticize people because the info someone provided wasn't up to your standards. Here, I found a forum that better suits your needs.

http://www.womensforum.com/