I've had this crappy 10 dollar sears brand soldering iron and I have been looking for a better one. What soldering iron would you recommend for general electronics use? I've been looking at this antex 18w iron, but I see it is made for 240v instead of 120v(i'm in the U.S.). Is there a way you could hook this up to a north american outlet? Any help would be appreciated.
No no no no, 40 watt is ment for HUGE solders and BIG connections. If your going to be doing electronics work you want something lower. I have a 15/30 watt soldering iron from radioshack and it is great.15 for the electronics and 30 for when I sometimes solder batteries together(don't ask).
It doesn't appear that Antex make 110V soldering irons. If you're set on using the Antex, you can buy 110V to 230V transformers designed for powering low power european devices, but tbh the transformers usually cost more than the soldering iron... I've found the 18W Antex to be only suitable for very light soldering. The Antex 25W XS iron is much better, but you'll probably want a smaller tip. Antex make seveal 24V irons, so maybe you could find a 24V transformer in the US?
Antex are a British company so may be hard to get overseas. I use the 25W XS too and find it a very good balance for small and large work. Antex also make a 12v equilavent to the 25W XS but your probably better off getting a 110v ~25W soldering iron. Getting a big name, easy to get hold of one will mean you wont have trouble getting hold of bits in the future.
In my opinion, the criteria for a soldering iron are: a) where it has to fit into ( surrounding space on workpiece, and work size ) b) thermal capacity ( the actual heat it can deliver to an object in the required time not just the wattage rating ) If I was soldering surface mount all day, needing little heat transfer, and wanting a light/nimble tool, I would get a small 20 Watt iron I wouldn't get tired of holding. If I was doing alot of varying sized things, I would get an iron that I could change tips on over a wide range of sizes, and about 50 Watt. You can do very fine work with a temperature controlled 50 Watt iron. You have to remember that a larger capacity iron can transfer more heat to an object without dropping in temperature as it tries to keep the tip hot. It is all in the heaters ability combined with the thermal mass of the tip. If the iron's tip is not able to transfer enough heat without losing temperature, you will have to keep it in contact with the workpiece longer, ( as the heater tries to keep up ) risking damage to the work. I regularily use a massive ( 150 Watt, 3/4" tip ) iron for soldering terminals on PCB's. This iron heats the joint instantly, and a finished joint is made in about 1 second. The same joint can take about 6 or 7 seconds with a regular iron. This iron is also used in repair work, removing T0-220 packages from double-sided PCB's without damage. The idea is to bring the work to the right temperature as quickly as possible before the heat travels into the surrounding area and does damage. To do this, you sometimes need what seems like a outrageous soldering iron. You may find that if you need to do alot of different sized work, a variable temperature soldering station of about 50 Watts is a good investment, compared to buying 2 or 3 irons for different jobs. As Jaxx mentioned, Weller makes some very nice and affordable stations, like the WES51
Look at a butane powered iron. The almost instant warm up, easy of use (no bloody annoying cables) makes it really great for occasional electronics stuff. I do all my stuff at my computer desk, I suppose if you have a seperate desk for doing this kind of stuff then mains powered one wouldnt be soo annoying. Mines a nimrod europe, solderpro50. The only annoying thing about it is that the catalyst part - where the gas burns, will heat up anything within about 1.5cm, so it can be annoying *sometimes* but Id still not go back to a mains iron. Also the catalyst, perfect for doing heatshrink and similar. Also the blowtorch tip is very usefull sometimes (my pc has watercooling, so soldering copper pipes etc..). Its not too powerfull for some jobs, the amount of gas used is fully adjustable. With blowtorch tip it goes from a tiny flame 1cm long, to a massive flamethrower about 15cm long (the tip doesnt give enough oxygen for the amount of butane,so it spits liquid butane which then ignites when it hits air )
On antex's website, they say they make 115v version of the XS 25w, and I found this site that sells them. About a smaller tip, what one would you recommend?
I've found the 1mm and 0.5mm tips ideal for small PCB work. If you buy the 1mm tip then you'll be covered for everything really, as you can still use the chisel tip which comes included with the iron for soldering wires etc.
Depends on your budget, and what you want to do with it. If you are just a hobbyist that occasionally needs to solder LEDs and whatnot, a 15/30W Radioshack (as much as I hate reccomending Radioshack) will be just perfect. If you're more serious about soldering (say, you do alot of surface mount work or whatever), then I would highly reccomend the Hakk0 936-12. I personally own one, and mine costed I think $85 shipped. Best $85 I've spent in my life. Then again, if you don't plan on doing anything too serious, or if you're on a tight budget, get the radioshack 15/30.
This is a solid alternative to the well respected Hakko 936-12 soldering station, with similar specs: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/webtronics/esdeltecosos.html It looks like a 936-12 clone to me.
After seeing some reviews of the hakko, I sorta leaning towards that one now. What are the advantages of having a variable temp soldering iron and does it justify the price? Thanks
I have an Antex, it came with a 4,7mm tip and I also bought the 1mm tip. The 1mm tip is very nice to work with electronics and some days ago I had to use the 4,7mm tip to desolder some cables off my crappy PSU that had several cables soldered together at the PCB, it was imposible to remove them with the 1mm tip.
Even more of a clone is this one: http://store.yahoo.com/webtronics/cispdeesdsas.html,there's a large discussion regarding it here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=85254. The conclusion pretty much was that the Hakko 936-12 is definitely a higher quality iron, that it's built better and works better, but for $35 the clone is definitely a good buy too if you don't need the quality of the Hakko.
Well I went ahead and bought the hakko 936 station off of ebay. Great deal too, only 60 bucks and new. Thanks everyone for all your help! Just one thing, how do you know what temperature to set it at for whatever your soldering?
Set it in the region of 380°C and you'll be fine. Sometimes bump mine up to 450°C for heavy duty work.
