Recommend Me A Soldering Iron!

[HomerJHandley]

for all RC soldering, i have a gas one which isnt up to the task of thick wire onto brushless kit!

ta

[BiggusDitchus]

I have a Weller 80watt with a big tip. I have used it for batteries, wires, motors would recommend that.

[HomerJHandley]

Where from? anywhere on high st type shop?

[FordF250]

I would buy the weller with the adjustable heat control station you have to buy them seperate but it is well worth the money in my opinion. If you are in the states a most any hardware store like Lowes or Home Depot should have them available.

[Skottoman]

I used to have an old radio shack soldering gun. Never realized how much it sucked until I got a Weller soldering station.

This rocks.

http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC100-Solder...r/dp/B000AS28UC

Cheers,

Skottoman

[HomerJHandley]

uk based

i do have a old draper iron that needs a new tip, but suspect it will be low heat as i bought it at least 20 years ago!

[Singapore_959]

Weller all the way.

Try ebay and google. 80W adjustable.

Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station with Power Unit, Soldering Pencil, Stand, Sponge

HTH

[HomerJHandley]

ta all.

any slightly cheaper ones any good than £80+

[BiggusDitchus]

I use a WELLER SP80L , can find them on ebay for around £20 - £25

[HomerJHandley]

cheers

found all the issues with the mardave was due to poor connections, one was battery side, and the other was the ESC -> motor

[HomerJHandley]

ordered yesterday from ebay, arrived today.

Comments about 'you need a big tip' and 'something that wont lose heat', dont think it will with this iron.

the tip is HUGE compared to my gas iron and huge compared to my old draper iron as well.

methinks it will do the job fine

[HomerJHandley]

anyone got any tips on how to tin thick wire, the type you get on batteries and suchlike?

practising earlier and had no joy, the wire didnt tin as expected, but think its because it is hefty wire, i have only ever used thinner stuff

ta

[JPH155]

Just my 2 cents.

The hotter the iron (through bigger wattage) the quicker it melts solder etc. However one should be careful not to overheat any component; in an ideal world a temperature controlled soldering station (with a choice of tips) is the best tool for any soldering job. But if you are just an RC'er and need a fairly economical but extremely high quality iron, then I'd suggest (for those in the UK) that you go for ANTEX irons. Their 25W offering is perfect for RC soldering especially when it comes to battery packs - it is the right wattage to melt the solder and make it flow into those thick 10/12-gauge leads. And if you need to do any emergency soldering on the field they also have a 12V version of the same iron. A 2.3mm tip is a good compromise for all those RC jobs. IMHO, Antex makes the finest electronic enthusiasts' irons (I have the whole Antex collection, not to mention other temp-controlled and SMD stations). They also make excellent low-leakage current 18/15/12W for finer jobs but those are more suitable for proper elcetronic component soldering e.g. LED's for those bodyset lights. I still have an X25 of 1982 vintage still going strong!

Last but not least, the type and quality of your solder (resulting in the overall soldering quality) is of paramount importance! Use quality 60/40 multi-core resin ones. They will flow better and not just burn and turn dull without sticking. To help make the solder flow on tricky materials, there are flux-pens that you can apply pretty much like a marker on the parts you are about to solder. A desoldering pump is a good tool to have handy where we need to get rid of excess "bad" solder. And make sure the contacts to be soldered are 100% grease-free to avoid breaks or dry joints. A good joint is usually shiny without any burnt flux residue.