Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

[mathog]

I currently have a 23W Weller with an MT1 (conical) tip which has served me well for many years on the occasional home repair. Unfortunately it does not work well with the lead free solder on the LCD displays I am currently repairing. On the first set of caps replaced it was really a pain getting the lead free solder off and the holes clear, but resoldering wasn't a problem, probably because I used leaded solder. So I want to upgrade just a little to an iron/tip that can handle lead free solder better. In the FAQ power ranges are recommended, but no specific irons. What I need in an iron is:

1. Suitable for lead free solder removal
2. Appropriate temperature (400?)
3. Suitable for both motherboards and double sided boards (as in the circuit boards in LCD monitors and other similar electronics.)
4. Inexpensive (both the iron and the tips)
5. Durable

It will only be used a few times a year.

Anybody care to recommend a particular model/tip that fits this bill?

While we are at it, which type of solder wick works best with lead free solder?

Thanks.

[stj]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

get a xytronic ajustable like ratdude uses.
what country are you in?

[mathog]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

get a xytronic ajustable like ratdude uses.
what country are you in?

USA

Which model does he use? www.xytronic.com currently has a notice on it "xytronic.com expired on 03/17/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion".

[stj]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

http://www.xytronic-usa.com/

[mathog]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

I ended up buying one of the ZD-99 workstations, 2nd down on the list, from here:

http://www.mpja.com/productsdirect.a...item4=15141+TL

This claims to be 50W and up to 800F (450C). It has a holder for the iron, and a sponge, is adjustable, and it looked fairly convenient for a low end iron. I have both 15865-TL (1/8" chisel) and 15862-TL (1/32" point) tips.

So far I have tried unsoldering some caps using it cranked all the way up with the chisel tip - not very successfully. It just would not melt the (lead free) solder on the Dell signal board. So I tried putting a small blob of 60/40 solder on the iron and that let it eventually melt (barely) the solder on one cap so that it could be pulled out. However, the high temps seem to have oxidized or done whatever to the tip so that it wouldn't work even that well on the next capacitor. On the second cap the board, or the coating on that side, melted a bit while I worked on one leg, and the solder was still solid as a rock.

Is it wrong to set the iron all the way up for desoldering lead free solder?

Is this a technique issue or do I need an even bigger iron?

Thanks.

[mathog]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

Better luck with the 15862-TL (1/32" pointed) tip. That at least let blobs of solder attach to the pads, and when those were heated to melting it eventuall melted the existing solder enough to pull out the caps without using much force, one leg at a time. Then possible to wick off most of the remaining solder, but couldn't clear the holes with the wick, a sucker, or a pin. (The pin stuck to the solder, possibly it wasn't stainless?) So the caps are all out but all but one hole is jammed.

Will pick up a 50 or 60 watt desoldering iron (the kind with a hollow tip and built in sucker) tomorrow and try that.

[Huckfinn]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

Mathog:

I have the answers to your dilemma of the soldering equipment not working as it should.To start with, the ZD-99 that you refer to is not suitable for soldering on motherboards, and it is definitely not suitable for desoldering work on motherboards. The much improved ZD-929C [shown above it on the same page] is still not suitable for motherboard desoldering/soldering use. The ZD-929C will work well with some lighter circuit boards that do not make extensive use of plated through holes or large ground planes and power busses that use lots of copper. I own at least one of each model, so I am not just guessing.

Another point to consider here is that you are trying to desolder with a tool intended for just soldering, and while that kind of usage is a very common thing to do for the sake of trying to avoid paying the cost of a quality desoldering tool, it does not work too well on motherboards. While many people have put into practice many clever and convoluted workarounds using cheap soldering equipment with suckers, plungers, copper braid wicking, dental probes, Dremel type tools, etc..., all of that stuff lacks a lot in the quality-of-outcome department.

If low cost is very important to you and you do not want to consider using the entry level versions of the Hakko or Xytronic soldering/desoldeering units, you may want to experiment with the low cost Chinese built versions of the good tools. [ see below ]

A rather nice example of a desoldering station that is about as low cost as you can get and still do the job is the model QK201B shown at:
www.smtmax.com/detail.php?id=52
And there are many more examples, if you hunt around a bit with a search engine. The above model has a built in vac pump, digital readout temp controller, setup and maintenance tools are included, all for just $245.00, which is not bad considering what all you get. These type of stations work quite well, but of course they are not as impressive as a $600.00 Hakko system. I have both types [Hakko and the low cost Chinese unit ], and I like them both a lot for most applications, including motherboard work. The Hakko station, as you might expect, powers through large MB ground planes much faster, however, with a bit of practice and care, the Chinese unit does a real nice job in most cases.

Huck

[cb92]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

This is a 25 watt job I put fiberglass on to keep from burning my fingers. My 30 watt Radio Shack one has a broken tip, and they don't carry replacements, and replacements for other irons won't thread into the Radio Shack unit. Argh. Chinese junk.

[cadiman]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

This may sound weird, but I am 42 years old and I have been working with mostly double printed curcuit boards since I was about 11. I still use a radio shack 8.00 desoldering iron. It`s around 45 watt and does everything I need it to do. The tips don`t last long if you use it everyday. When desoldering I always add solder, this heats up the old solder then suck all of it out at once. I am sure a really good one works better, but this works great. I always used it for resoldering boards in delco radios and dash clusters. It is great for cleaning up a board after soldering (gets rid of bridges between pins).

[mathog]

Re: Which inexpensive soldering iron (not station)

I have the answers to your dilemma of the soldering equipment not working as it should.To start with, the ZD-99 that you refer to is not suitable for soldering on motherboards, and it is definitely not suitable for desoldering work on motherboards. The much improved ZD-929C [shown above it on the same page] is still not suitable for motherboard desoldering/soldering use. The ZD-929C will work well with some lighter circuit boards that do not make extensive use of plated through holes or large ground planes and power busses that use lots of copper. I own at least one of each model, so I am not just guessing.

Yeah, after messing with the ZD-99 for a while I find the 23W Weller to be a much better tool for soldering. The ZD-99 came with a sponge, and I used that to clean the first tip. Big mistake. This ate through the iron coating on the tip in no time, leaving a worthless tip. The ZD-99 tips hold up much better using one of those bronze shaving tip cleaners. Even so, the Weller tips last longer and wet better. The one I have in there now is pretty chubby though, a finer tip would be needed to work on motherboards.

Another point to consider here is that you are trying to desolder with a tool intended for just soldering, and while that kind of usage is a very common thing to do for the sake of trying to avoid paying the cost of a quality desoldering tool, it does not work too well on motherboards. While many people have put into practice many clever and convoluted workarounds using cheap soldering equipment with suckers, plungers, copper braid wicking, dental probes, Dremel type tools, etc..., all of that stuff lacks a lot in the quality-of-outcome department.

I bought a $10 Radio Shack desoldering iron and tried it on a PS board from an Acer AL1916W. It worked great. Just squeeze the bulb, slide it down over the trimmed lead, wait for the solder to melt, straighten the lead (make it vertical), and then suck. That left every capacitor I tried it on loose enough to pull out by hand, and all the through holes clear. Heck, some of them fell out when the 2nd lead was desoldered.

However...

I also tried to use it to clear through holes on the video card from a Dell monitor. These holes were more like those on a motherboard (small), and the capacitors were already out. It was completely worthless for getting the remaining solder out of those holes.

Also the tips are supposedly very short lived.

Still, for $10 it did a very good job of desoldering on components, so I'm not going to complain