TekNoir
Newbie level 3
the best soldering iron
I just started learning about electronics last year and at the time I bought myself a very cheap soldering iron to start out with. (When I say "cheap," I mean that I gave the clerk a ten-dollar bill and received change back in exchange for the item.) I would like to upgrade, preferably to a complete station, but I am having a slight bit of difficulty with advertising terms.
What confuses me is the connection between temperature and advertised wattage.
From my understanding, it takes a tip temperature of somewhere around 361F (183C) to melt 63/37 solder efficiently. However, a great number of soldering irons and soldering stations, as well, only advertise a wattage rating, some give both, and some only give their temperature. I'm not exactly certain how wattage translates directly into temperature rating.
I realize that electricity moves through the heating element and the resistance causes heat and that the power dissipated can be measured in watts. Am I missing some simple connection? I would think that the two were unconnected, sort of like the marketing scheme of lighbulbs in watts which have nothing to do with their light output (in lumens). It could be assumed, of course, that higher wattage produces more heat (or light), but this is simply not always true. Thermal properties of the substances involved, basic construction, as well as other factors have to be figured in as well.
As an aside, I have noticed soldering stations advertised with tip temperatures adjustable between 350F and 800F, yet their advertised wattage were completely different (42W for one as compared to 80W for the other). I have been told (and read in a number of places online) that twenty-five to thirty-five watts was good enough for electronics work. Yet, I cannot comprehend "good enough." Does that mean that I should not get anything over thirty-five watts for fear of ruining components (which I, once again, would tend to believe has more to do with temperature than actual wattage) or that something with lower wattage simply won't get hot enough? (I should note that I saw some 15W soldering irons with tip temperatures of 600F.)
The only connection that I can somehow attribute from research is in the transfer of heat into the joint itself. Higher wattages would transfer the same amount of heat faster than a lower wattage would for the same temperature. I would think that this would be conducive to better and faster soldering so long as you didn't decide to daydream at the exact moment you decided to solder a joint. This is another reason that I question the 25W to 35W "rule." Shouldn't any soldering tool capable of delivering an appropriate amount of it's 360F+ tip temperature be "good enough?"
In closing, the two soldering stations that I am considering purchasing (the Hakko FP-102 and the **broken link removed**, both comparably priced at 200$ USD and what I have budgeted to spend on a new soldering station) are both well over the 35W recommended for electronics work. I was trying to put together a clearer picture of what I should look at when purchasing my soldering companion for the next number of years.
Sorry for the long post and thank you all in advance...
Edit: I had inadvertently copied the melting point for lead alone. I have now corrected my data to correctly represent "ideal" electronics solder's melting point.
I just started learning about electronics last year and at the time I bought myself a very cheap soldering iron to start out with. (When I say "cheap," I mean that I gave the clerk a ten-dollar bill and received change back in exchange for the item.) I would like to upgrade, preferably to a complete station, but I am having a slight bit of difficulty with advertising terms.
What confuses me is the connection between temperature and advertised wattage.
From my understanding, it takes a tip temperature of somewhere around 361F (183C) to melt 63/37 solder efficiently. However, a great number of soldering irons and soldering stations, as well, only advertise a wattage rating, some give both, and some only give their temperature. I'm not exactly certain how wattage translates directly into temperature rating.
I realize that electricity moves through the heating element and the resistance causes heat and that the power dissipated can be measured in watts. Am I missing some simple connection? I would think that the two were unconnected, sort of like the marketing scheme of lighbulbs in watts which have nothing to do with their light output (in lumens). It could be assumed, of course, that higher wattage produces more heat (or light), but this is simply not always true. Thermal properties of the substances involved, basic construction, as well as other factors have to be figured in as well.
As an aside, I have noticed soldering stations advertised with tip temperatures adjustable between 350F and 800F, yet their advertised wattage were completely different (42W for one as compared to 80W for the other). I have been told (and read in a number of places online) that twenty-five to thirty-five watts was good enough for electronics work. Yet, I cannot comprehend "good enough." Does that mean that I should not get anything over thirty-five watts for fear of ruining components (which I, once again, would tend to believe has more to do with temperature than actual wattage) or that something with lower wattage simply won't get hot enough? (I should note that I saw some 15W soldering irons with tip temperatures of 600F.)
The only connection that I can somehow attribute from research is in the transfer of heat into the joint itself. Higher wattages would transfer the same amount of heat faster than a lower wattage would for the same temperature. I would think that this would be conducive to better and faster soldering so long as you didn't decide to daydream at the exact moment you decided to solder a joint. This is another reason that I question the 25W to 35W "rule." Shouldn't any soldering tool capable of delivering an appropriate amount of it's 360F+ tip temperature be "good enough?"
In closing, the two soldering stations that I am considering purchasing (the Hakko FP-102 and the **broken link removed**, both comparably priced at 200$ USD and what I have budgeted to spend on a new soldering station) are both well over the 35W recommended for electronics work. I was trying to put together a clearer picture of what I should look at when purchasing my soldering companion for the next number of years.
Sorry for the long post and thank you all in advance...
Edit: I had inadvertently copied the melting point for lead alone. I have now corrected my data to correctly represent "ideal" electronics solder's melting point.
