Ugly Solder Joints

[Joe Gwinn]

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.

You do not need to spend $200. My everyday iron is a Weller WES51, which I got on sale for $100.

Before that, I used a WTCP for 40 years. I bought an extra heater back then, but have never used it. The iron has never needed repair, so it's now my backup iron. I see these used from time to time for no money at all, and I bet that (unless obviously damaged), all those used irons work just fine. Weller sells repair parts for everything they have ever made.

I kinda shy away from things that are expensive and expensive to fix when they break.

Those non-controlled irons are very expensive, if your time is worth anything.

Soldering should not be such a struggle. First of all, struggle is costly in time. Second, struggle is costly in consistent product quality. Get a real production-grade iron and be done with it.

[David Schwab]

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

That's one of the reasons I got one. I used to have a nice Hexicon station, but the thermistor went bad, and at the time I didn't know where to get it serviced.

So then I used regular irons, and since I often have it on for long periods was changing tips every few weeks.

And I can turn this off and not have to wait for it to come up to temperature... it's very fast.

And Dave, look... it's under $40 and come with a replacement heating element!

Aoyue Basic Soldering Station 936 > Soldering Stations > Main Section > Stan Rubinstein Assoc., Inc.

[SteveJ]

Yeah. You need a BIG iron (if no temp control) for that, or alternately a STRONG iron (with temp control).

Thanks Joe. Thinking about it I probably just need to swap my tip for a larger one when I do pickup covers. The one I have does fine on steel but I'm probably not getting fast enough heat transfer on brass. I have a old Pace soldering station so it should handle the job.

[Joe Gwinn]

Thinking about it I probably just need to swap my tip for a larger one when I do pickup covers. The one I have does fine on steel but I'm probably not getting fast enough heat transfer on brass.

Yes, a wide tip helps a lot, so if it almost worked with the narrow tip, the wide tip may work just peachy. It's certainly worth a try.

I have a old Pace soldering station so it should handle the job.

I have an old Pace desoldering kit that I used only a few times -- the solder sucker and braid was faster than hauling the Pace out, as the need was occasional.

I'll be damned - Pace survives: Welcome to Pace Worldwide. They were one of the Cadillac brands. I thought they were gone, not having seen any ads or mentions recently. Now they sell direct over the web, probably plus distributors.

[Joe Gwinn]

Vulcan No 90, A Real He-Man's Soldering Iron

Well, I came upon another soldering iron I bought for nothing at a used-tool place. I think I paid $2.00 for it, but don't recall. It came without a cord, so I was really buying it for the big hunk of copper that passes for a tip, but after some ohmmeter work I think it probably works, and I'm putting a cord on it. It is very simple and seems well made.

The details: Vulcan No. 90, 120 volts, 480 watts (yes, about a half a kilowatt), from Vulcan Electric Co. The head weighs 1.2 Kg (2.6 pounds), mostly from the huge copper tip (1.5" diameter). No temperature control, but who's counting?

This iron is probably intended for soldering copper gutters and flashing on houses.

Vulcan is a fairly common name for companies dealing in the heating and/or forming of metal, but I suspect that the maker was the Vulcan Electric Company of Porter Maine. But they don't make soldering irons any more.

The No 90 will surely handle soldering and unsoldering pickup covers.

[Possum]

...

I'll take a look but I'm not having any soldering problems at all. The soldering stations will they do bucker covers and a tele baseplate attached to the pickup? (big heat sink there). And do I have to switch tips just to do one or the other, that takes up time. I keep both my irons hot when I'm working. If not it useless for me, the weller 20 iron works perfectly, and my 60 watt Taiwan wonder works perfectly too...

[Joe Gwinn]

I'll take a look but I'm not having any soldering problems at all. The soldering stations will they do bucker covers and a tele baseplate attached to the pickup? (big heat sink there). And do I have to switch tips just to do one or the other, that takes up time. I keep both my irons hot when I'm working. If not it useless for me, the weller 20 iron works perfectly, and my 60 watt Taiwan wonder works perfectly too...

The older Wellers (like the WTCP) do require tip switching to change temperature, but none of the current designs do. All the modern stuff has an electronic control of some kind, with a temp-setting dial (on analog units) or up-down buttons (on digital units). For soldering irons, I don't see the benefit of digital control, so I bought an analog controlled iron.

The reason to change tips is that wider tips are better at heating, but are clumsy for fine work. In guitar pickups, there is little call for fine work (like leads on flyspec surface-mount components), so I would use a relatively wide tip. Experience will tell which size is best.

[Joe Gwinn]

d.) Try a utectic solder?

It's spelled eutectic, if anybody wants to look it up.

What is the definition of eutectic solder?

[Joe Gwinn]

Vulcan No 90

I just finished giving it a new power cord and plug. It works just peachy. God knows how old it is.

I think I know why people went to high power temperature controlled irons - this thing is very tip-heavy, and I bet it's tiring to use.