Ugly Solder Joints

[David Schwab]

You have to watch soldering guns around pickups. They generate a magnetic field at the tip, and that can effect alnico magnets.

[RedHouse]

You have to watch soldering guns around pickups. They generate a magnetic field at the tip, and that can effect alnico magnets.

Yes, most definately!

In pickup making a soldering "gun" is no sub for a ceramic element type soldering tool.

[Joe Gwinn]

I doubt you will be cosmetically successful with a 50W. In my post above I was trying to show how one needs a BIG iron (not huge, but not a standard size one), then heat the joint fast and move off.

Well, I have not tried to unsolder a cover with the 50-watt weller, but I have been surprised by what it could do more than once. I suppose I'll have to try it. I suppose I need a reason to get one of the really big Wellers:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Weller-W100PG-Professional-Stained-Glass/dp/B000TDKDXW]Amazon.com: Weller W100PG Professional Stained Glass Iron - 100 Watts: Home Improvement[/ame]

[Possum]

....

I thought about getting one of those soldering stations but seems like you gotta get two different ones because they won't handle stuff like soldering tele baseplates or covers on buckers very well. I stay with old school. I bought 2 made in Taiwan 60 watt irons for $20 on Ebay, they are hot irons and work well. The Chinese ones burn out too fast. Then I use a 20 watt Weller iron. If they die its not an expensive fix like a soldering station.

If you use a soldering GUN, and you notice your pickup vibrating a little when you bring the gun near it, thats your coils demagnetizing your magnets if you get too close.

My Dad has his original soldering iron from WWII that still works!

[David Schwab]

I have an Aoyue 936 soldering station. It's the same as the Hakko 936, but with a lower wattage heating element. I put a chisel tip on it. I love it. It gets really hot, really quickly. I leave it at about 650°.

How the heck do you pronounce "Aoyue" anyway?

[Joe Gwinn]

I thought about getting one of those soldering stations but seems like you gotta get two different ones because they won't handle stuff like soldering tele baseplates or covers on buckers very well. I stay with old school. I bought 2 made in Taiwan 60 watt irons for $20 on Ebay, they are hot irons and work well. The Chinese ones burn out too fast. Then I use a 20 watt Weller iron. If they die its not an expensive fix like a soldering station.

I think I would buy one good temp controlled iron for electrical soldering, possibly plus a large iron for covers and baseplates.

The typical 20-watt irons are not a good idea in production. The typical production iron is 40 or 50 watts and temperature controlled. They cost more to be sure, but they work so much better, and you will find only temp controlled irons in electronic production shops.

As for the big Weller (for stained glass), it is designed for sheet metal work, and surely will have no problem with covers and baseplates. Nor is this the biggest iron made, as mentioned later.

If you use a soldering GUN, and you notice your pickup vibrating a little when you bring the gun near it, that's your coils demagnetizing your magnets if you get too close.

I have one of those 250 watt guns that I bought in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Now that we have the Gaussmeter, we can directly test the thesis that these guns demagnetize a pickup. I suspect that they do not, despite the vibration and drama.

I would short the coils though, on the fear/theory that excessive voltage will be induced in the coils. But again this is easily tested by putting a voltmeter across a coil and observing the voltage as the energized gun is brought near.

My Dad has his original soldering iron from WWII that still works!

What make and model? It probably is not temp controlled, but none were back then, and yet life went on.

I recently purchased an real soldering iron - it's a one pound hunk of copper on an iron rod, with a wooden handle at the other end, used for soldering copper flashing and gutters. I can't imagine that such an iron would even notice a pickup, and the price was right: $2.00 at a used tool store.

[RedHouse]

... Now that we have the Gaussmeter, we can directly test the thesis that these guns demagnetize a pickup. I suspect that they do not, despite the vibration and drama.....

Hey great idea Joe, put our new gear to work! would be a good test.

[Possum]

....

Well if you are just using a single soldering iron I wouldn't recommend going over 20 watts for soldering bucker leads to 42 guage PE, or really any other wire. Why? Even with a 20 watter if you linger too long, or too hot you leave the copper magnet wire very weakened. I have opened a pickup that died to find that the magnet wire literally just dropped off the solder joint. I've repaired this on other's pickups as well. We have a big discussion about this years ago here on the forum. Lollar said he found over the years that anything he had soldered with a 40watt iron more often the solder joints failed and that none of the lower power iron solder joints did. My Weller 20 watt iron is more than hot enough. For a long time I used a 15 watt iron, but the Weller does a better job especially on PE which has to be scraped pretty good and clean or it will resist soldering well...

[mkat]

I have an Aoyue 936 soldering station. It's the same as the Hakko 936, but with a lower wattage heating element. I put a chisel tip on it. I love it. It gets really hot, really quickly. I leave it at about 650°.

How the heck do you pronounce "Aoyue" anyway?

LOL, I have both those and every now and then ask the same question. I mainly use the Aoyue. I bought a chisel tip for it a while ago but haven't used that yet, will give it a try.

[David Schwab]

LOL, I have both those and every now and then ask the same question. I mainly use the Aoyue. I bought a chisel tip for it a while ago but haven't used that yet, will give it a try.

Oh the chisel tip is vital! I couldn't do anything with the tip is came with... good for working with PCBs and SMD I guess.

It's a nice station, especially if you are on a budget. Aoyue makes the Hakko stuff in their factory.

Like Dave said above, I used a 15W and a 40W iron before I got this. You have to watch to not melt the coper wire with the 40W irons, but they strip the insulation well.

The temperature regulated station is the best of both worlds, because it's fast but wont get too hot if you don't want it to.

[SJE]

How the heck do you pronounce "Aoyue" anyway?

I would guess it would be pronounce - ow (as in if you've just burnt yourself ) and you . . so phonetically ow-you.

This would be how most phonetic transliterations in Asian languages are done.

[Joe Gwinn]

Well if you are just using a single soldering iron I wouldn't recommend going over 20 watts for soldering bucker leads to 42 guage PE, or really any other wire. Why? Even with a 20 watter if you linger too long, or too hot you leave the copper magnet wire very weakened. I have opened a pickup that died to find that the magnet wire literally just dropped off the solder joint. I've repaired this on other's pickups as well. We have a big discussion about this years ago here on the forum. Lollar said he found over the years that anything he had soldered with a 40watt iron more often the solder joints failed and that none of the lower power iron solder joints did. My Weller 20 watt iron is more than hot enough. For a long time I used a 15 watt iron, but the Weller does a better job especially on PE which has to be scraped pretty good and clean or it will resist soldering well...

Power (in watts) versus temperature (in degrees) is the issue.

Irons without temperature control are designed to achieve proper temperature with a thermal load proportioned to the wattage of the iron, so if one uses too large a non-controlled iron, the workpiece will be instantly overheated.

With temperature control, no such over-temperature will occur, no matter the wattage. However, a low wattage iron will take forever to get other than tiny workpieces up to temperature, and so tend to cook things.

In production soldering, high-powered temperature controlled irons are universal. The only restriction on how high the power is operator fatigue if the iron is physically too large.

The top-of-the-line $300 Weller soldering stations are 80 watts in a small tip. I just looked at the Cooper Weller website - they now also offer a 120-watt soldering pencil, for use on surface-mount components. The issue is to get the connection up to temperature FAST, so neither board nor component have time to cook.

[soundmasterg]

I thought about getting one of those soldering stations but seems like you gotta get two different ones because they won't handle stuff like soldering tele baseplates or covers on buckers very well. I stay with old school. I bought 2 made in Taiwan 60 watt irons for $20 on Ebay, they are hot irons and work well. The Chinese ones burn out too fast. Then I use a 20 watt Weller iron. If they die its not an expensive fix like a soldering station.

If you use a soldering GUN, and you notice your pickup vibrating a little when you bring the gun near it, thats your coils demagnetizing your magnets if you get too close.

My Dad has his original soldering iron from WWII that still works!

Your soldering skills will improve by 200% when you get a temp controlled soldering station Possum. After using both the uncontrolled ones and the temp-controlled ones, I'll never go back to the uncontrolled ones. My 2 cents.....

Greg

P.S. The temp-controlled ones don't go through tips nearly as fast either..

[Possum]

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Of all my needs around here, a $200 soldering station isn't even on my list. My irons work fine, no problems. The 15 watt was underkill but even with that I had no problems soldering that weren't overcome by just getting used to what it did. I kinda shy away from things that are expensive and epensive to fix when they break. Old school....shoot me

[jonson]

+1 MrG. 25 years with a Weller solder station Possum and the only cost was half a dozen tips. Upgraded 3 years ago and no probs so far. Iv'e got one of those old copper beaters Joe just as a decoration but once again temperature control does everything inc baseplates.