Hello guys, I’m on the market for a new soldering iron, currently when welding 14/12/10 awg wires I have to use two soldering irons (30w+60w), not pratical
One thing that got my attention is a butane powered 3 in 1 kit, that serves to solder, heat gun and torch, anyone have one of these and can say if it has enough power to work on large wires?
What do you guys use?
I just use an cheap 100w soldering iron. Really looking forward to get a soldering station, as these cheap ones isn’t the best
At least 80 to 100 watts with a fat chisel tip. You need the mass of a large iron otherwise the solder will pull the heat out of the tip too quickly and you will end up with cold joints.
I recommend American Beauty if you have the cash and want something that will last a lifetime. https://americanbeautytools.com/Soldering-Irons?gclid=Cj0KCQiAi7XQBRDnARIsANeLIes9gutwiQ-Ka_gLlQVScouqFofJUqp7BtHVohJx40cvEpXowhHrTYMaAjjTEALw_wcB
@FredrikHems I also would love to get one, but the ones with enough power cost too much
@chaka That’s a problem i see with the gas powered one, not much mass to store heat compared to a conventional one, the power on the specs are 125w
I’d reccomended just getting one of the cheap $30 soldering stations on eBay like the 937D. I have one and it has been working very well for about a year. You could also get a two in one soldering and hot air station cause a hot air gun is super useful as well.
I have one of Those butane solders… Not my first choice… Something fast between 60-100w is the best. Lately I am using mostly the hakko iron that came along with my spot welder
Diesel motor heater on the end of a wooden handle hooked to a car battery. Boom 400w solder iron.
This is hell of dangerous though
Hakko FX888D, never lets me down.
hakko 888d, with fat chisel tip, handles 10awg no issues.
ha, at the same time
+1 on the hakko 888d. Heats up quick. Make sure to pick a chisel tip
You are maybe battling with wrong thing. 60W is perfectly capable of soldering AWG10 cable, and the tip doesn’t matter much. What matters is the tin and soldering technique. Use Sn60/Pb40 rather than lead-free solder. Then try to get the tip to touch as much of area you can, so the heat goes to right place. Sometimes you need to press the iron harder to the soldering joint to get desired effect. Also pre-tinning the tip helps to get the heat travel better.
FYI i have 80W Weller WS-81 soldering station, which gets the job done very fast, and my travel-iron is simple no name 40W, which also does it’s job with the method i explained.
I’m in the market for an iron as well; which one of those American Beauties fits this eskate application the best in your opinion?
I get by fine with a 3/8 inch tip @ 100 watts. AB has some nice pointed tips too but I haven tried them. A 80 watt iron from the hardware store can be had for $20. So you need to weigh how many hours the tool is going to used vs the cost. A $20 iron lasts me about a year of daily use. The AB tips are really nice and they are compatible with any iron with a gib screw type fastner/socket of the same diameter.
I use an off-brand 100W soldering gun, works really well on 10 gauge cable. I tried using a butane torch but I found it was too hard not to burn connectors.
I use a generic soldering iron from Home Depot for most things. To solder 5.5mm bullet connectors to 10 gage wire, I had to break out the blow torch.
For very big wires, I’ll blast it with hot air and the soldering iron with the largest tip at the same time
Get a nice one if you can cause you will keep it for a long time
I love the Hakko mentioned above