Soldering gun, or big-ass iron?

[GibsonLover]

What do you guys use to heat up big metal for soldering? I had a Craftsman solder gun that lasted 7-8 years then died. I replaced it with a Weller, and it died after a year. Barely got warm, never got hot. Are these things fragile? It take a BIG iron so freaking long to heat up....

[Steve Conner]

Agh, I hate those soldering guns. I had a few over the years, but they never quite seemed to work right.

My favourite general purpose soldering tool was a Weller 50W temperature controlled iron with a selection of tips. It handles everything from surface mount ICs to octal sockets and eyelet boards.

My colleague at work recently had to solder a bunch of RF screening cans made of steel plate. He bought a terrifying 100W soldering iron specially for the job, with a chisel tip that must be a good 3/8" wide. It worked beautifully, way better than any soldering gun I've ever seen, so now we bust that out any time we need to solder anything really big.

[GibsonLover]

Ya - it's time for a change. I like the replaceable tip idea. The guns have that 'instant gratification' factor I like, but often need help with an iron too, and I only have three hands...;-)

[petemoore]

big

I have an old 'industrial' iron from the 50's or 60's I think.
Huge long thing, great heavy heat sink takes 5 minutes to warm, 8 minutes and it will bore heat right through thick wire bundles over heavy lugs, quickly, nice.
I had a Craftsman Gun w/light...worked great till it fell [twice?], the innards of the 'barrel' became shattered. It'd heat up to melt solder in ~ 30 seconds though, nice, it could get hotter than I ever needed, the '2 speed' model.
Big one for this, small one for that...seems to be optimal as far as good results overall, ime, working with a smaller than necessary iron gives less than optimal or satisfactory results...cold solders, baked 'peripheral' bakables like insulation etc. result from longer heat up time, ugly and not as reliable.
I use an adjustable weller, I use the adjustor, so that heat doesn't runaway^, gets great results...there are auto-adjust irons.

[tim]

for soldering to the chassis, I use one of those miniature blow torches (carefully). It gets the metal hot fast and as long as you're careful, you won't overheat anything else around where you're soldering to...not recommended for soldering to pot covers etc though...I find my Weller tip is sufficient for that...just make sure the place where you're soldering to is shiny clean, scotchbrite it or use fine sand paper or a fiberglass brush.

[Gtr_tech]

Agh, I hate those soldering guns. I had a few over the years, but they never quite seemed to work right.

My favourite general purpose soldering tool was a Weller 50W temperature controlled iron with a selection of tips. It handles everything from surface mount ICs to octal sockets and eyelet boards.

My colleague at work recently had to solder a bunch of RF screening cans made of steel plate. He bought a terrifying 100W soldering iron specially for the job, with a chisel tip that must be a good 3/8" wide. It worked beautifully, way better than any soldering gun I've ever seen, so now we bust that out any time we need to solder anything really big.

Word.
I have a few Weller WP100 irons and they take no shit from *any* chassis I don't care how big it is. Just keep 'em away from magnets....I zorched one by getting the barrel to close to a small neodymium magnet stuck to the front of the bench....

[pila]

I have an old American Beauty 300 watt iron that does the job with no fooling around. I was checking online, and I see that brand is still around (and expensive) My iron has a tip that's about 7/16" in diameter.

[Gtr_tech]

And it was made in good ol' D-twah....
300w? Holy Hell.....

[pila]

They were available up to 500 watts years ago. Don't know if they still are.

[drewl]

Aside from "the big ass iron" we have at work, a trick i use is to run my soldering iron trhough a variac.
You dial down the voltage which lowers the heat for delicate work, or crank it up for melting chassis connections.
Works especially well with all the soldering irons I have with bad temp regulators!

[EffectsGuru]

Don't go with soldering guns their cheap, also your best bet is a SOLDERING UNIT, where you can adjust the temperature, not the type where the soldering iron plugs directly into the wall. The advantage of temperature adjustment a plethora of changeable tips, and a nice holder with a wet sponge is well worth it and your soldering will look great instead of looking like a pile of cat shit on the back of a guitar pot. I highly recommend the HAKKO 936, I got it for $100.00 at some huge electronics store in Tempe, Arizona while attending Robeto Venn School of Guitar Luthiery, and it vastly improved my soldering, in both function and appearance.

[EffectsGuru]

Are you talking about the PYRO PEN?

[Gtr_tech]

If you have a *good* 30-40w iron, just changing to a larger chisel tip makes a huge difference in soldering to the back of a pot casing. Fine tips just can't retain enough heat to do a pot. Same goes for heavy pcb traces like gnd planes....'specially through plated.