I’ve “upgraded” to a digital iron. A weller wesd51. Seem ok. I’m not as impress as I thought I might be. Anyways…
What temperature should I be setting it to?
Wikipedia told me that 60/40 solder melts at 361–374 °F- so I set my iron to 525-550 °F and it seems as if my old “fire starter that you plug into the wall and forget it” did a better job. I also see to be frying components. What gives?
(I’m using generic 60/40 rosin core 0.032 inch solder.)
Thanks.
GG
I set my Hakko 936 to 320 deg C (608F) and this works well for most tasks. Some people use closer to 400 deg C (752 F), but I think this is much too hot.
I think your problem is that your temperature setting is too low.
I have found that if the iron is not hot enough you spend too much time heating the component. It is better to have the iron on the too hot side and solder quickly.
george graves:
I’ve “upgraded” to a digital iron. A weller wesd51. Seem ok. I’m not as impress as I thought I might be. Anyways…What temperature should I be setting it to?
Wikipedia told me that 60/40 solder melts at 361–374 °F- so I set my iron to 525-550 °F and it seems as if my old “fire starter that you plug into the wall and forget it” did a better job. I also see to be frying components. What gives?
I have two WESD51’s on my bench. I keep one loaded with a medium chisel tip for through hole and large SMT work. I keep the other one loaded with a fine needle tip for fine SMT work. I keep the larger tip at about 475-500F typically for most work. Sometimes I crank up 25-50F more for RF connectors (I solder alot of PCB mounted SMA connnectors). I keep the needle tip at about 450-475F. I find that high heat really makes it hard to keep these smaller tips from oxidizing past the point of no return.
I would also recommend that you start using eutectic Sn63 solder. Sn63 virtually has no plastic state and is really the industry standard…at least in the US (we can still have lead!). You will find SN63 easier to work with. Buy good quality solder, such as Kester. There is a difference between good Kester and cheap Chicomm crap.
When I was taught soldering in the military some 15-20 years ago, the rule-of-thumb was keep the temperature approx 150 degC higher than the melting point of the solder, so about 323 degC. We normally had it a bit higher at 350degC, which I still do. Since you normally loose some heat on it's way out to the tip, this works out quite good. But remember that it's not just how high temperature you use, but also how fast you can get that temperature down to the component. The bigger the surface you need to heat up, the bigger the tip you need to use.george graves:
I’ve “upgraded” to a digital iron. A weller wesd51. Seem ok. I’m not as impress as I thought I might be. Anyways…What temperature should I be setting it to?
Wikipedia told me that 60/40 solder melts at 361–374 °F- so I set my iron to 525-550 °F and it seems as if my old “fire starter that you plug into the wall and forget it” did a better job. I also see to be frying components. What gives?
(I’m using generic 60/40 rosin core 0.032 inch solder.)
Thanks.
GG
Stig