Do you use seperate soldering irons? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Fluxed Matter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2012, 06:05:16 pm
content: I have been repairing many PCB at work lately and the thought cross my mind about separate soldering irons Some of the older boards I am pretty sure use lead solder but on some of the newer ones I am not so sure.Anyway, recently my iron tip has been looking rather crusty and no matter how much I clean it does not stay shiny. So now I am thinking that somehow the tip has become contaminated.Do you have one soldering iron for lead solder and another one for leadfree solder?

author: SLJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2012, 06:26:28 pm
content: I have two soldering stations. My trusty old Weller which I use for general soldering and a digital rework station with a temp control soldering iron for surface mounted components. I don't use a separate iron for lead free solder but then again I'm usually just doing a repair on the newer stuff.See:http://www.stevenjohnson.com/soldering/mytools.htmI have a block of "Sal Ammoniac" which I use if a tip gets really bad.Here's a real short video on cleaning and saving a tip:

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2012, 10:04:58 pm
content: I have a Hakko 936 I use only for electronics work and an unregulated cheapo iron I use for soldering large wires. No sense wearing out good Hakko tips for crude jobs, and I can get $1-2 tips for the cheapo iron easily. You don't really need to use a separate iron for Pb and Pb free unless you are working in some RoHS compliant commercial setting. Pb free does wear out tips faster but it can be reduced, see the archives for graphs on temperature, solder types and calibrating of solder stations.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2012, 11:10:31 pm
content: Separate tips, same iron.There are green o-ring kits available to help identify lead-free tips (example).

author: George_Race
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2012, 01:14:47 pm
content: I actually use three different types of soldering tools.For small work i use a small 25 watt pencil iron. It has a screw in element with a very small chisel tip. My second iron is the same style with a 75 watt element, chisel tip.Third is a Weller soldering gun, a 100/140 watt dual heat.If I can't get it done with those three, the next step is the butane torch! Works great on copper water pipe!George

author: jeroen74
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2012, 07:10:04 pm
content: I have two Wellers, a WS81 and a WTCP-S, the latter can now use the same tips as the WS81 one with a adapter thingie. I solder/unsolder with two irons at the same time

author: Fluxed Matter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2012, 10:53:05 pm
content: Thanks for the replies guys. Having read a few post lately about how mixing leaded and leadfree solder is bad I got to thinking that separate irons would be better.I guess changing tips would work because I change tips for soldering and desoldering. When I remove the part I usually use a big fat 4 mm tip and when I solder in the part I use a 1 mm tip.The big 4 mm tip works really well for removing components that suck up a lot heat and I really like it but it takes a little getting use to it for soldering. If it 1 maybe 2 parts I don't switch but if I have to do many then I switch to the smaller tip.A picture of my work iron