Soldering Stations

[CARPERFECT]

I want to buy a good soldering station. What do you recommend . Around £30 - 50 ?

[Martin McIntosh]

I have written a lot on here about these on other threads. You can do no better than visiting CPC/ Farnell where you will find a very good long lasting product to fit your budget.. The bee`s knee`s of these is a Metcal but at £250 is way out for a modeller. Professional soldering used to be part of my job but the last company I worked for would only fork out for the CPC ones. No problem.

[Allan Bennett]

I don't know exactly what a soldering 'station' comprises, but for my electronic hobby needs I'm very satisfied with my temperature-contolled 50W Antex iron with a selection of easily interchangeable bits ranging from 0.1mm to 6mm. It comes with a stand incorporating a cleaning sponge -- does that make it a 'station'?

That iron does everything from soldering battery leads to Deans Ultra, and other, plugs, down to minute surface-mounted-devices on a PCB. For heavier work, such as silver-soldering undercarriages, I use a 80W uncontrolled Antex iron with a 10mm (I think) chisel bit.

[FlyinBrian]

" For heavier work, such as silver-soldering undercarriages, I use a 80W uncontrolled Antex iron with a 10mm (I think) chisel bit."

Silver soldering requires much more heat than an iron can give, a blow torch is needed. I would not silver solder an undercart as the heat would remove the temper from the piano wire.

[Allan Bennett]

Posted by FlyinBrian on 06/07/2019 18:13:25:

" For heavier work, such as silver-soldering undercarriages, I use a 80W uncontrolled Antex iron with a 10mm (I think) chisel bit."

Silver soldering requires much more heat than an iron can give, a blow torch is needed. I would not silver solder an undercart as the heat would remove the temper from the piano wire.

Certainly a blow torch can remove the temper, but my iron works well with the silver-solder (it says on the reel) I use.

I can see where you're coming from with your statement about temperatures, for the internet tells me that 'normal' soldering is done at around 200C whereas silver-soldering is at around 450C. But checking RS's web site I see that their silver-solder melts at 296C, which is the kind of stuff I use. Presumably there's different grades, and hardnesses, of silver-solder.

[BackinBlack]

Silver soldering should correctly be called silver brazing. It uses a hard silver solder which typically contains between 33 to 55% silver and has a melting point of 650C to 720C, the more silver the lower the melting point. It is primarily used for mechanical rather than electrical jointing as an alternative to brazing, which needs a hotter flame. It is an alloy containing in addition to silver Tin, Copper, Zinc and some rare metals.

Typified by it's lower melting point below 450C, Soft soldering uses lead based solder also with tin and copper plus only 2 to 6% of silver, lead free solder is again based on Tin and Copper with a small amount of silver and other rare metals it is most commonly used for electrical connections. It's also used for plumbing.

That means that if you can melt it with a soldering iron it is Soft solder, if it needs the heat of a blowtorch it is Silver or Bronze Brazing, which is much harder and stronger.

There's also Silver soldering for Jewellery, which also uses a high silver content and requires more heat.

HTH

Ian

Edited By BackinBlack on 07/07/2019 14:47:29

[Tim Flyer]

Yes many seem to confuse electrical “non lead” silver solder with the >50% silver brazing rods. To use them its done with a proper blow torch . I used my MAP gas torch and silver brazing rod and flux to make exhaust manifolds it’s way harder and stronger than low temperature solder that melts with electric irons. Silver solder works well on stainless steel and I used that to attach the brass exhaust outlet and cylinder pipe to my stainless “bendy” exhaust pipe. You can buy low temp aluminium brazing rods too which contain a percentage of zinc to lower the melting point,but they still require a torch .

[Allan Bennett]

Posted by Tim Flyer on 07/07/2019 19:13:37:

Yes many seem to confuse electrical “non lead” silver solder with the >50% silver brazing rods. To use them its done with a proper blow torch . I used my MAP gas torch and silver brazing rod and flux to make exhaust manifolds it’s way harder and stronger than low temperature solder that melts with electric irons. Silver solder works well on stainless steel and I used that to attach the brass exhaust outlet and cylinder pipe to my stainless “bendy” exhaust pipe. You can buy low temp aluminium brazing rods too which contain a percentage of zinc to lower the melting point,but they still require a torch .

Given that they're all called 'silver solder', it's no wonder there's confusion! So I'm wasting my time using my low-temperature silver solder for u/c work, rather than regular solder?

[CARPERFECT]

You get off topic very easy. Where did i ask about silver soldering, blow torches. and how blooming much silver is in my solder and what temp in melts at etc ?. I only asked a simple question Best soldering station for my man cave.

[John Lee]

Lots of good suggestions in this thread, I'm rather tempted by the one Peter Christy bought.

[BackinBlack]

My preferred iron is the Antex TCS50W. covers light, small work through to medium jobs such as XT60/90 connectors. I have several Antex irons (CS15, XS25 and TCS50) which have all proved reliable, the CS15 is now 40+ years old. They're British and spares are readily available. Good to get a few extra bits to cover small and large jobs.

Whatever you choose I would suggest that it has a heat resistant silicon cable, which is more flexible than the common PVC cables. Much easier to use if you don't have to fight the cable when positioning the iron for delicate work.

Finally don't use lead free solder, it erodes bits quite quickly and doesn't flow on joints as easily as traditional lead/tin multicore fluxed solder.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Allan Bennett]

Posted by CARPERFECT on 08/07/2019 17:11:51:

You get off topic very easy. Where did i ask about silver soldering, blow torches. and how blooming much silver is in my solder and what temp in melts at etc ?. I only asked a simple question Best soldering station for my man cave.

You're right, we do widen the scope of our discussion a bit, but it's all related to what kind of iron would be good for you, so is not really off-topic. If you would tell us what kind of work you intend to do with a soldering station, maybe we could get to the point more directly

[CARPERFECT]

WEP 939D+ 75W. From Amazon £59.99

YIHUA 937D 75W from Bangood £48+ del

 

 

Edited By CARPERFECT on 09/07/2019 07:50:34

[CARPERFECT]

 

wep 939d is my first choice

 

Edited By CARPERFECT on 09/07/2019 08:02:43

Edited By CARPERFECT on 09/07/2019 08:04:06

[Allan Bennett]

If you feel you need a station, rather than a simple iron, the Amazon one would be my choice of the ones you've mentioned. I've not heard of either of the brands, but you should be able to get better support from Amazon in case of a problem.

But you'd better wait until someone who's actually owned one of these can give you their input.

[Martin McIntosh]

I just read the thread in the link from John Lee. No wonder that people have trouble with the tips blackening when they try to file them to clean. Any proper tips are iron coated so you must never remove this. All professionals have used a damp, and I mean just damp, not wet, sponge for the last 60 years that I know of. Nothing to do with elf `n safety. The tip will be in contact with this for such a short time that it will not cool. The fine strands of copper shown are for the dreaded lead free solder since the tips cannot be cleaned by normal methods, but I would hope that nobody is attempting to use that stuff.