Iron too?

[Bill Reed]

I am not the greatest soldered but can get by. I always seem to struggle more on smaller stuff,wires and board connections. I have several irons from 12w upwards. Even using the 12w Antex it seems at times that the solder moves fast like boiling,seems like its too hot. Can these non temp controlled irons get to hot? wondering if I should try a adjustable sort,seen them in lidl fairly cheap.

[Brian Hammond]

The Lidl one is very good and man enough for fitting connectors to Lipos etc.

[Nigel R]

How big is the bit? I would only expect around a 3mm or thereabouts chisel or wedge shape on the type of connections you are talking about, and that is a small iron.

and

is the iron clean?

[Bill Reed]

Tried a small chisel and the fine point. I must admit I can never get a really good clean tip when its lovely and even silver. seen many vids on how to.

[Geoff S]

I wouldn't voluntarily use anything but a powerful temperature controlled soldering iron these days. I used a Weller for may years but before that I had a Henley Solon 25watt for general electronics use (repairing and building amplifiers, radios and TVs) but that was in the 1950s when I was still at school. To be quite honest it's worth spending the money to get a decent tool IMO.

After my Weller failed, after being used for around 40 years, I bought a temperature controlled iron from Maplin. It's small, with interchangeable tips and around 60 watts IIRC. That means it maintains it's temperature as if it were a much bigger iron on larger joints like 4mm bullet connectors. For heavy work I call on the Henley Solon 120 watt iron I've had since I was a teen.

When soldering only put solder on the iron to tin it. Solder should be applied to the joint and the iron should be used only to heat the job. My dad would go spare if he saw me carrying the solder to joint on my iron (my excuse was it was easier if I was holding a component with one hand and soldering with the other).

You should only file an iron tip if it's just copper. Many (all?) quality temperature controlled irons are plated and should be wiped on a wet sponge.

Geoff