soldering irons

[wcoffey81]

one thing to keep in mind when picking a soldering iron is: the new leadless solders that are required in quite a bit of the electronics industry take a lot more heat, to melt, than the old lead based solder we are used to. if your iron does not have enough wattage you end up overheating the component long before the leadless solder melts/flows. the idea is to get in there and out as quickly as possible.
if you like to buy tools for the long haul, like i do, look at soldering irons with around 100 watts unless you want to buy a second iron later. i personally own/use a hako but there are a number of other irons that work well too.
http://www.techni-tool.com/ is a great source for supplies. they are on the expensive side but you can at least use them for researching part numbers and such.

[delta7fred]

Originally Posted by DieterVDW

Isn't this a light case of consumerism... ?

Yes but it is also TB so what starts out as soldering a few wires in a cavity ends up costing a fortune in equipment.


It is a fact though that it is easier to solder with a good iron than a bad one (poor heat control and regulation), even if you are very experienced at it.

[dalahorse]

Originally Posted by DieterVDW

Isn't this a light case of consumerism... ?

I mean to solder some guitar electronics basically anything that gets the solder melted seems to do the job for me?
I even do PCB soldering with a 5 euro gas soldering iron, works perfectly...
It's not like it has to be within 10 degrees tolerance or something right? As long as the solder melts and the PCB doesn't, thats fine right?
And you can pretty easily judge the heat of the soldering iron by just monitoring how fast the solder melts in my opinion...

To some degree yes. However, I had crappy Radio Shack irons before my Weller. It was my experience that a low quality, underpowered iron would take so long to melt the solder that I'd sometimes scortch ICs and PCBs. That's no good!

The OP doesn't need a $500 setup. But I'd say he does need 40 watts of power, a desoldering solution, and an iron cleaner. At that point, they'll be able to get this job done, plus many more in the future. If a good brand is bought from the start and it's well cared for, it'll be a good small investment that'll do the job for a very long time.

[delta7fred]

Originally Posted by wcoffey81

one thing to keep in mind when picking a soldering iron is: the new leadless solders that are required in quite a bit of the electronics industry take a lot more heat, to melt, than the old lead based solder we are used to.

If you are new to soldering I would strongly advise against the use of lead-free solder. It is more difficult to use and does require a more expensive iron than tin/lead. It is intended for consumer products that could end up in landfill in 18 months. Hopefully your prized bass will still around for many years to come.

(YMMV, IMO, IME etc. of course as I don't want to (and won't) get in to an argument about the moral issues of using tin/lead solder on bass guitars.)

[Bottoms_Up!]

All this talk of temp control, but no mention of actual desired temps for basic guitar joints (unless I missed it). Anyone?

[Zoomie]

I am running the new HAKKO 888 digital. 700-725f for pedal box builds. 750f for pot pick up work. At least this is what works for me. Great looking solder joints without cooking pot or PC board.