beginning soldering iron

[quote author="PRR"]> burn out transistors using a chunky radio shack soldering iron

That is VERY hard to do, with Silicon transistors and 60/40 solder. Silicon will survive and even work at solder temperatures.
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Wow, really?!?
I guess I can stop using "burned out transistor" as the excuse for why my Tycobrahe Octavia clone doesn't work. All the symptoms point to a bad transistor - but perhaps I just wired it wrong.

You should be able to get a good joint in 10 seconds start to finish. The iron must be not just clean but "wet" with solder: a dry tip does not get enough contact area to heat the joint quickly. Parts must be clean so you don't have to boil a lot of flux to break through tarnish. If you can get in and out in 10 seconds, tip-temp isn't very important.

For reference: my tip glows in the dark. Very faint red. This is too hot unless you have a lot of practice, and know when to get-off if the joint isn't taking solder real quick.

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the pointers! Do you use rosin core solder?
Or some other kind of flux?

Thanks, Kato

ONLY use rosin core flux. Anything else is setting yourself up for future problems. I use a Weller WTCPT (I think this is the model) . tHIS IRON HAS exchangeable tips in different shapes and temperatures to suit the job. At 45W this iron can do some reasonably heavey work too, like pots and big ground busses, etc.

There are many cheaper irons available, but many are poorly made, don't have parts available, or other problems. I think these Irons are pretty good quality considering what they cost. As well a cheap iron can lead to much frustration if you intend on doing more than a dozen solder joints over the course of a year.