My first soldering!

[Elecmox]

Let me show you my first soldering.
This is my first attempt:

This is my second attempt:

Please, be gentle.

 

[Elecmox]

I bought 60W soldering iron, and now I can easily desolder components from PCB, which I couldn't with 30W iron due to lead-free joints.
I must say that 60W is a bit stronger/hotter then I would like to, I think 50W would be perfect for all. I just need to work a bit faster with 60W.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Buying a soldering station as suggested at the beginning of this thread, you can adjust the temperature to that required for the task, it's a false economy to keep buying soldering irons at different wattage's to get over the problems encountered.

 

[Elecmox]

Buying a soldering station as suggested at the beginning of this thread, you can adjust the temperature to that required for the task, it's a false economy to keep buying soldering irons at different wattage's to get over the problems encountered.

I didn't bought station because I still don't need it, and it's a bit expensive compared to my needs. I could've buy cheaper ZD-99 station for 20 euros, but if I buy station I will buy really quality station, but that's in the future, just not now.

 

[static zap]

I must say that 60W is a bit stronger/hotter then I would like to,

Add a bit of fan assisted McFrugal fume extraction.
To reduce temperature !
(noticed difference with un-regulated irons working outside in the wind )

 

[freddo]

For desoldering on PCBs applying some flux from a flux pen to the joints before desoldering will often help a lot. I've been using temperature controlled soldering stations for the last 17 or so years and wouldn't be without now. I do use a standard 80W iron for soldering larger wires such as shown in Luciens example above as they can dump a lot of heat into the joint so it can be soldered fast before all the insulation starts melting. A higher wattage iron is needed for most modern pcbs that have more than one track layer, some multilayer boards can have substantial amounts of copper in the inner layers for power rails that can sink the heat away. If the joint isn't heated up enough the plated through holes can be damaged when the component lead is pulled out.

My current iron for PCB work is a 130W JBC, a fantastic tool, bit rather expensive...

 

[jackhammerJIM]

but not the one LIdl's sell.-pakside, they are crap.

Its funny you should say that Tel . i went into LIDL for a box of cereal and came out with a gas powered soldering iron . It soldered 3 terminals before the ignitor broke

 

[telectrix]

Its funny you should say that Tel . i went into LIDL for a box of cereal and came out with a gas powered soldering iron . It soldered 3 terminals before the ignitor broke

the aldi ones are good. the parkside one i bought was a soldering station with temp. control. the iron was used 4 times then stopped getting hot. replaced with a cheapo iron after cutting off plug and wiring into station. still working 3 years on.

 

[Elecmox]

For desoldering on PCBs applying some flux from a flux pen to the joints before desoldering will often help a lot. I've been using temperature controlled soldering stations for the last 17 or so years and wouldn't be without now. I do use a standard 80W iron for soldering larger wires such as shown in Luciens example above as they can dump a lot of heat into the joint so it can be soldered fast before all the insulation starts melting. A higher wattage iron is needed for most modern pcbs that have more than one track layer, some multilayer boards can have substantial amounts of copper in the inner layers for power rails that can sink the heat away. If the joint isn't heated up enough the plated through holes can be damaged when the component lead is pulled out.

My current iron for PCB work is a 130W JBC, a fantastic tool, bit rather expensive...

I used 60W for soldering wire to the needle of multimeter after it has broke. I managed to quickly solder wire before it could melt plastic insulator. If I used 30W it would probably need more time to solder and plastic would melt.