Buying advice wanted - soldering irons?

[Eric The Viking]

I find, to my shame, that my last decent electronics iron has died. As have my two Portasol catalytic gas ones (they leak and the cats don't work well any more). I had a couple of Antex small irons (15W), and an Antex lookalike from the 80s that was the best of all. Antex are annoying - no tips I can easily find in Maplins fit their earlier stuff, it seems.

I'll consider a soldering station, but can't break the bank to fund it.

Any of the electronics folks round here got any recommendations? It has to be hot enough for occasional lead-free use and desoldering, and I want it for small, old-fashioned, circuit board work (discrete components and small ICs) but probably not SMT (though may be forced to sometimes), so interchangeable tips would be useful. 15W-20W would probably do it. Temp control not essential as long as the thing works well, and it probably doesn't need to be low voltage, although I'm not all that fussed either way. I'll probably get another Portasol for location work anyway, as they're so good, but they're just too expensive on gas to be my only small iron.

Any recommendations appreciated.

TIA,

E.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Never liked Antex.

Non TC irons seemed OK until I got used to a Weller 50W temperature controlled iron, which heats up much quicker, and can cope with much bigger joints, but is still quite fine for the smallest SMT components I can solder by hand.

I also have a 35W 12v Weller temperature controlled iron, I like an iron you can plug into the tractor ! (I accept I may be unusual in this regard )

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks - I meant to have a look at Weller ones.

The Portasols are (were!) good for 'off-road' use, as I had a range of tips for them. The big tip cooks up pretty much anything, but you'll get through a lot of gas, but the fine tips work equally well. The other advantage is that they're really handy for heatshrink, as quite a bit of heat comes out of the side vents. They seem to be a bit expensive now though :-(

 

[Eric The Viking]

Just looked at Weller on Amazon - the same station that's $40 in the USA is 138 quid here!

That really is extracting liquid...

 

[cutting42]

I find, to my shame, that my last decent electronics iron has died. As have my two Portasol catalytic gas ones (they leak and the cats don't work well any more). I had a couple of Antex small irons (15W), and an Antex lookalike from the 80s that was the best of all. Antex are annoying - no tips I can easily find in Maplins fit their earlier stuff, it seems.

I'll consider a soldering station, but can't break the bank to fund it.

Any of the electronics folks round here got any recommendations? It has to be hot enough for occasional lead-free use and desoldering, and I want it for small, old-fashioned, circuit board work (discrete components and small ICs) but probably not SMT (though may be forced to sometimes), so interchangeable tips would be useful. 15W-20W would probably do it. Temp control not essential as long as the thing works well, and it probably doesn't need to be low voltage, although I'm not all that fussed either way. I'll probably get another Portasol for location work anyway, as they're so good, but they're just too expensive on gas to be my only small iron.

Any recommendations appreciated.

TIA,

E.

I am a big Portasol fan and the only iron that I found could compete on heating up big 12 awg cables etc is this soldering station. It truly is the best soldering station I have ever used and I have used a few. Very fast to heat (15 seconds) and goes into idle after not being used for a bit and will switch itself off completely. A big selection of tips that you can swap while hot is also a huge benefit. It is a little pricey at £98 +vat but if you do a fair bit of soldering you will never regret it.

http://www.pmtech.co.uk/consumables/sol ... ation.html

 

[moosepig]

Just replaced an old 25W Antex iron that I'd had since childhood, the plastic finally went brittle and cracked after 37 years of sterling service. As for bits - well I already had them, but you can get replacements online from Rapid Electronics. For general purpose electronics I find the Antex perfectly fine and a nice cheap option.

One thing to watch out for - if you try to replace the element in your Antex iron, the instructions tell you to solder the new one in. So you might as well buy a new iron, as you're going to need a second one anyway ;-)

 

[flying haggis]

any where near you?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/soldering/sol ... 1146355429

 

[Droogs]

I've allways liked using a pyro pen, was issued one in the army and have used them ever since. you can get one here:
http://uk.farnell.com/weller/0051605999 ... dp/4343554

 

[Sheptonphil]

I do a lot of laptop DC socket replacement on laptops as well as general circuit board solder work and use this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60W-Professio ... Swu4BVj9Ke

It has replaceable tips, I keep a selection of sizes for various applications. Temperature control is decent.

Phil

 

[MusicMan]

+1 for Weller. Used professionally.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks everyone.

I'm watching a few Weller ones on eBay, and will buy new (poss. PMTech) if I can't get a good s/h one at a sensible price.

There is also a Portasol refurb service, too, so I intend to investigate that: their gas/catalyst irons are just too useful, and I don't like the non-catalyst ones I've seen as there's wasted heat and far less control (IMHO). Failing all that it looks like I can get a modern Portasol at a good price that's very similar to the two I have - that sounds good, too.

Cheers,

E.

PS: The old Portasol hasn't seen much battle recently, and the reservoir leaks, but it is 30 years old and still going, despite being bashed about in my toolkit all that time.

 

[flying haggis]

Eric, next mon lidl have soldering stations on sale

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-249 ... l&id=30270

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks for that - worth a punt, definitely.

With the exception of the two gas ones I have, I've never spent as much as these Weller ones seem to go for, even well used on eBay. I have a digital readout for thermocouples, bought for doing big ICs on a project a while ago, so I am able to check temp with reasonable accuracy if necessary.

I seem to be doing well from Lidl at the moment: Japanese saws before Christmas, heavy duty castors and spanners two weeks ago, and a battery charger last week. My big shop vacuum is doing well too. And there was the Stollen

I'll try to get one next Monday and report back.

 

[No skills]

Castors?? How much were they?

 

[Eric The Viking]

Five quid a set - 70mm diameter, hard nylon, roller bearing axles, set of four: two swivel (locking), two rigid. They're German made and seem far better than the Toolstation ones I've bought in the past. I can't remember how much weight they'll take but they look strong. They had some left earlier in the week, so might be worth a look.

I got four sets, so I can do all-swivel if that's necessary. Even if the non-swivel ones don't get used on machinery, they are useful for other things.

 

[No skills]

That's good. I'll have a look, see if I can get some.

Cheers.

 

[AES]

@Eric The Viking (and anyone else interested):

This is probably too late for you now but just by coincidence we were across the border into Germany yesterday and I "just happened" (!) to wander into Lidl. They had the soldering station (below) on sale for Euros 9.99. I don't actually need one but thought "at that price .................... " etc, etc!

I have noticed before that items posted on this Forum as appearing in Aldi & Lidl UK stores often turn up over here (Swiss stores for me normally) at about the same time so it maybe you want to check it out?

I haven't used it yet (it has a moulded-on German mains plug, which - of course! - isn't compatible with Swiss plugs) but it does look OK and I've had quite some success with Parkside (Lidl) stuff in the past.

The bit is approx. 3.5 mm dia with a fine pencil point. The "book" says it's rated at 48 W but doesn't say the upper/lower regulation range. About the only things I can see against it are A) the cable between between the transformer box and the iron itself feels a bit stiff for fine work, and B) the little bit of sponge for cleaning the bit is the thinnest sliver I've ever seen in my life! OTOH it does come with 2 reels of cored electronics solder.

Here are scans of the Instruction "Manual" front pages:

HTH someone

Krgds
AES

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks AES.

They'll be here in my local Lidl on Monday. Intending to 'have a punt, so to speak.

E.

 

[AES]

OK ETV - assuming the UK price will be about a tenner (with the standard EU 3 year guarantee - we don't get that in Switzerland, our guarantees are whatever the vendor decides to give) I guess you can't go wrong - as they say!

Cheers
AES

 

[Eric The Viking]

OK: bought a couple of these this morning (one as a spare). Quite pleased. I'll post pics when I get time, but first impressions:

These are NOT temperature controlled soldering stations. The power to the iron is at 240V, and goes through a thyristor dimmer circuit. Flat out, the iron is rated 40W, which makes it useful for all sorts of jobs, big and small.

Electrically it is simple but well made: There is ample RF filtering so it shouldn't cause interference on the mains, and a solid earth passed through from the mains to the iron tip. It looks safe (but this is the second iteration of the design, so it ought to be this time!).

The iron's cable to the controller is a bit short and a bit inflexible.

The iron itself has three "security screws" of the slot-with-a-nib arrangement often found in the past on kettle elements etc., but the base has simple Phillips screws behind the rubber feet: relatively easy to fit a more flexible cable (IF you know what you're doing!). You might also fit the old Bulgin-type plug/socket in the base, there's room but honestly there's hardly any point.

The iron tips, as supplied are horrible.

Silly shapes and apparently of the wrong material to tin properly (tinning is when the solder flows over the metal - essential for good heat transfer and proper soldered joints). They also use a fitting arrangement I've never seen before - the ends of the tips are threaded, and screw into the iron. This is good news and bad news: you won't find a cheap commercial replacement, BUT they appear to be standard M4 thread, so it would be quite possible to roll your own from 4mm copper rod and a an M4 die. As long as they can be kept tight, they ought to thermally couple pretty well to the heating element. I might experiment with a smear of thermal paste on the thread - it'll either keep it tight or make it loose!

The solder supplied is good old 60:40 tin:lead. That means three things:

1. It has a lower melting point than lead-free solders,
2. It may not combine well with some lead-free formulations (I've had problems in the past),
3. On its own, it will make better joints more easily.

Good for odd jobs and general repair work, but the fact it's leaded solder (a good thing, IMHO) ought to be made clearer for those who believe the nonsense about lead-free stuff. They can then leave the product on the shelf for the rest of us. I don't know if it's flux cored, incidentally, but assume it is, as it's described as "electronics solder". There's 10g in each of the two rolls supplied - enough for several repairs, and the rolls are a handy size to be refilled later.

Minor point of detail: the iron has a springy stand.

That's fine, but as supplied, it points down enough to be too close to the bench, IMHO. So I've put an extra bend in the support wire of mine, to make it nearer to the horizontal, and lift the hot end well clear.

Hope that's useful,

E.