Tips for soldering tips..

hywelg

Not much point in lead free in my work, soldering lead!

Modulus_Amps

ecc83 said:

The rifle range where I was a safety officer has been shot over since the Great War. You cannot lift Sod One without finding a bullet or/and casing and yet! The grass grows, the flowers bloom, the trees still reach for the sky and the bloody rabbits thrive!

Dave.

Rabbits Thriving??  I think your members need to improve their aim then

I don't think there are any exemptions based on employee numbers for this directive, for those interested you can read RoHS Directive here.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32011L0065&from=EN

Misty

Mickeyji said:

Misty said:

Interesting thread, can I ask for some advice? I have a couple of very old soldering irons, a 25 watt and a 40 watt, with old tips which don't help me do a neat job. I'd like to buy one or two new irons to replace them, What do you guys use and would recommend for general use on my guitars, (soldering pots for example), and the odd straightforward job on my amps? Also what shape tips are best....pointed, chisel, etc.? Thanks.

I recently bought one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ERSA-0710CD-Ersa-Soldering-Ptc70/dp/B00505FOF6/ref=sr_1_47?ie=UTF8&qid=1519154215&sr=8-47&keywords=ersa+soldering+iron

It's far better quality than the cheap, crappy Chinese irons and soldering stations I had before. The pros I know all recommend either Weller or Ersa.

Thanks for that, I'll check it out.

Haych

My soldering iron is the cheapest thing I could find, I forget how many watts it is but it must be fairly high as it slowly melts the tip during long periods of use, so I quite often sand or file it back to it's original pit shovel shape.  

Despite this I never have any issues at all using it, it holds and flows the solder well and now I've gotten used to its unwieldiness I've become quite adept with it, I've even used it to solder chip sockets to ECU PCBs for some car tuning guys.

I used to solder for a living.  In the factory we had all singing all dancing, variable temperature PACE solder stations with all sorts of different tip configurations and chip removers.  They were very good...... when they worked.  They weren't cheap, even 20 years ago they were close to four figures a set but they frequently broke down.

My £5.00 Draper does pretty much everything I need it to for rewiring guitars and doing odd jobs on amps.  I keep promising myself a decent iron but while this one works I doubt I will to be honest.

ecc83

"Rabbits Thriving??  I think your members need to improve their aim then"

Ha! Some would love to shoot them, many would be appalled. Illegal in any case. Live quarry, even 'vermin' as rabbits are classed, can only be shot by an Authorised Person  who can be the land owner or his tenant (if the L.O. gives permission) Or another person given permission, best in writing, by the owner.

The range had a system whereby a person could apply for permission for one year to shoot out of range hours.

In the ten years I was involved we had a 100% zero firearms accident record and in all the years before that.  Peeps popping off at passing bunnies would have put that record in jeopardy!

Dave.