Regardless of whether a circuit board is manufactured with leaded or leadfree solder, or irrespective of which type you are using, Circuit board foils are more often damaged by too long an application of too little heat rather than the application of "too much" heat. The iron needs to be hot enough to quickly heat the foil and component lead so that you can solder them really quickly and get in and out of there fast without deleminating the foils from the board. An iron that isn't hot enough, or doesn't have sufficient thermal mass/poor thermal transfer/slow thermal recovery will struggle to melt solder, especially if the foil on the board is a large ground plane (or if youre soldering an RCA plug or jack with a lot if metal mass), and so you'll end up holding the iron to the board for way too long, attempting to get the solder to melt and flow. If the iron is insufficiently hot, the tip is the wrong size, shape or material for fast thermal transmission, or not properly tinned (clean and shiny with a thin coating of solder to transfer the heat), and you hold it to a connector for too long while attempting to melt the solder, you can actually soften and melt the plastic insulator in between the 2 conductive halves of an RCA jack! A couple of, ahem, " tips": 1) use the very largest tip that you can physically work with in that space because the bigger it is the more it retains heat and doesn't cool off too quickly when applied to the connection to be soldered. 2) The pointy conical tips supplied with most irons are terrible for all but the smallest connections and a so-called "chisel" tip (a blunt, rounded "chisel" to be more accurate) is preferred for all but the tiniest connnections. 3) Materials matter: high-quality tips are made of plated copper for best possible thermal transfer and conductivity and will be plated with iron only at the pointy business end because iron resists the dissolving effects of molten solar and flux, where bare copper would quickly be dissolved, oxidized and pitted. Unfortunately, the vast majority of tips supplied with cheap soldering irons, or purchased separately directly from China or Asia, are invariably made of iron or steel throughout, which is easily verified with a magnet (see the video about this on my channel) and they don't work anywhere near as well as plated copper tips, and in some cases can even damage sensitive components on a circuit board because the cheapo ferromagnetic tip throws out a strong magnetic field and generates electric current in the nearby components. It's OK to use a Chinese or Asian made soldering station but you're better off buying matching tips directly from Hakko USA. They might cost $6 to 10 each, but they're copper, plated with iron only at the pointy end, made to high tolerances ( so theyll make better contact with the heater assembly), and longlasting if not abused. I know it's tempting to buy a dozen tips for less than 20 bucks online, but don't do it! Many many soldering irons and stations have been manufactured for at least the past 20 years or so that use T 900 or 900 M style tips, which as far as I can tell are virtually identical size wise; Hakko calls chisel tips "D" style, availability in a variety of tip widths.
I bought a Weller station and it didn't last very long. Looked into getting it repaired and decided I could get a Hakko for about the same price as the repair. It's been great. Setting the temperature isn't as easy as turning a knob, but I haven't needed to change it yet because everything I do is pretty much the same.
@@biasedaudio, With modern Weller equipment, the Mantra is "better dead than Red"; their "red line" of equipment sold at big box stores such as Home Depot is overpriced junk, like the $65 unit that includes an ordinary 120 V AC powered iron and an electronic light dimmer in a red plastic box, so that you can turn the heat *down* to the 40 W iron but you can't turn it up, and there's no temperature-sensing feedback circuitry. You can buy a "Schneider" one-knob soldering station from Harbor Freight (a rebranded Atten 937) that has true temperature sensing feedback for only $45, and other than the stiff non heat resistant cable (which could be upgraded to a silicone cable if you have a second iron to solder with) it's a pretty decent unit; a great buy for almost no money, certainly far better than what I had to work with as a kid in the 60's and 70's, although the supplied tips are solid iron (as are virtually any and all tips sold online direct from China or Asia), not copper, and performance will improve if you spend $6 to $10 for a genuine Hakko tip which is plated copper for better heat transfer and are made to tighter tolerances so it will also likely fit the ceramic heating element more snugly. I posted a review and tear down of one on my channel; and soon I will post a review of the digital soldering station that Harbor Freight sells for $120 , which is a rebranded ATTEN ST80. I personally don't like buying things directly from China and the incidence of defective or counterfeit products sold online is very high; but if you purchase from a local store and you don't like it or it turns out to be defective right out of the box, you can just bring it back for a refund.
PS, hobbyists should avoid using lead-free solder, especially if they are new to soldering, because it's very difficult to work with, and even under the best of at-home conditions often achieves a less than stellar, less reliable connection. The higher temperatures required to melt lead-free solder mean that you can't use a typical inexpensive soldering station, you really need a high quality and likely expensive unit; and between the corrosive fluxes required for (contained within) leadfree solder, and the higher temperatures necessary to melt and flow it, tip life tends to be very short.
Regardless of whether a circuit board is manufactured with leaded or leadfree solder, or irrespective of which type you are using, Circuit board foils are more often damaged by too long an application of too little heat rather than the application of "too much" heat. The iron needs to be hot enough to quickly heat the foil and component lead so that you can solder them really quickly and get in and out of there fast without deleminating the foils from the board. An iron that isn't hot enough, or doesn't have sufficient thermal mass/poor thermal transfer/slow thermal recovery will struggle to melt solder, especially if the foil on the board is a large ground plane (or if youre soldering an RCA plug or jack with a lot if metal mass), and so you'll end up holding the iron to the board for way too long, attempting to get the solder to melt and flow. If the iron is insufficiently hot, the tip is the wrong size, shape or material for fast thermal transmission, or not properly tinned (clean and shiny with a thin coating of solder to transfer the heat), and you hold it to a connector for too long while attempting to melt the solder, you can actually soften and melt the plastic insulator in between the 2 conductive halves of an RCA jack!
A couple of, ahem, " tips": 1) use the very largest tip that you can physically work with in that space because the bigger it is the more it retains heat and doesn't cool off too quickly when applied to the connection to be soldered. 2) The pointy conical tips supplied with most irons are terrible for all but the smallest connections and a so-called "chisel" tip (a blunt, rounded "chisel" to be more accurate) is preferred for all but the tiniest connnections. 3) Materials matter: high-quality tips are made of plated copper for best possible thermal transfer and conductivity and will be plated with iron only at the pointy business end because iron resists the dissolving effects of molten solar and flux, where bare copper would quickly be dissolved, oxidized and pitted. Unfortunately, the vast majority of tips supplied with cheap soldering irons, or purchased separately directly from China or Asia, are invariably made of iron or steel throughout, which is easily verified with a magnet (see the video about this on my channel) and they don't work anywhere near as well as plated copper tips, and in some cases can even damage sensitive components on a circuit board because the cheapo ferromagnetic tip throws out a strong magnetic field and generates electric current in the nearby components.
It's OK to use a Chinese or Asian made soldering station but you're better off buying matching tips directly from Hakko USA. They might cost $6 to 10 each, but they're copper, plated with iron only at the pointy end, made to high tolerances ( so theyll make better contact with the heater assembly), and longlasting if not abused. I know it's tempting to buy a dozen tips for less than 20 bucks online, but don't do it! Many many soldering irons and stations have been manufactured for at least the past 20 years or so that use T 900 or 900 M style tips, which as far as I can tell are virtually identical size wise; Hakko calls chisel tips "D" style, availability in a variety of tip widths.
Nice work Brad!
I bought a Weller station and it didn't last very long. Looked into getting it repaired and decided I could get a Hakko for about the same price as the repair. It's been great. Setting the temperature isn't as easy as turning a knob, but I haven't needed to change it yet because everything I do is pretty much the same.
Unfortunately I believe Weller's quality has gone down, too bad I loved them back in the day. They have just released a new line though.
@@biasedaudio, With modern Weller equipment, the Mantra is "better dead than Red"; their "red line" of equipment sold at big box stores such as Home Depot is overpriced junk, like the $65 unit that includes an ordinary 120 V AC powered iron and an electronic light dimmer in a red plastic box, so that you can turn the heat *down* to the 40 W iron but you can't turn it up, and there's no temperature-sensing feedback circuitry. You can buy a "Schneider" one-knob soldering station from Harbor Freight (a rebranded Atten 937) that has true temperature sensing feedback for only $45, and other than the stiff non heat resistant cable (which could be upgraded to a silicone cable if you have a second iron to solder with) it's a pretty decent unit; a great buy for almost no money, certainly far better than what I had to work with as a kid in the 60's and 70's, although the supplied tips are solid iron (as are virtually any and all tips sold online direct from China or Asia), not copper, and performance will improve if you spend $6 to $10 for a genuine Hakko tip which is plated copper for better heat transfer and are made to tighter tolerances so it will also likely fit the ceramic heating element more snugly. I posted a review and tear down of one on my channel; and soon I will post a review of the digital soldering station that Harbor Freight sells for $120 , which is a rebranded ATTEN ST80.
I personally don't like buying things directly from China and the incidence of defective or counterfeit products sold online is very high; but if you purchase from a local store and you don't like it or it turns out to be defective right out of the box, you can just bring it back for a refund.
Great stuff Brad! Luckily I have midnight bob in my roledex!
Better then buying a soldering iron!
Subbed thanks for the tips
Under rated video! How tf does the other AI shit videos get more views than this High quality video
PS, hobbyists should avoid using lead-free solder, especially if they are new to soldering, because it's very difficult to work with, and even under the best of at-home conditions often achieves a less than stellar, less reliable connection. The higher temperatures required to melt lead-free solder mean that you can't use a typical inexpensive soldering station, you really need a high quality and likely expensive unit; and between the corrosive fluxes required for (contained within) leadfree solder, and the higher temperatures necessary to melt and flow it, tip life tends to be very short.
Hakko is pronounced, "Hah-ko".
oops