Re: You never forget your first time..

[quote author="Viitalahde"]



Slowly building up on tools. Do you btw think I should return my friend's scope? I've had for over a year now. :green:[/quote]

Nah. Just send him/her a botle of wine, and keep it another year.

allways turn it off when not using to say your tip life and if at all possible use distilled water in the sponge so as to not get minerals and crap baked on your tip 2 cnets

Wil

I'm by no means a soldering pro, but I've yet to use a sponge when soldering. I keep a rag made of canvas on my bench, and when the tip starts to look nasty ( which is often), I wipe it off with the canvas. Makes the tip nice and shiny again. Yes, over time the canvas starts to look nasty and needs replacing, but it seems to work well for me.

I've got sponges on both my stations, but they are still in the "yet to be used" flat state

=)

ju

I have two wellers one with a small tip and one with a large tip on my bench. I think I got them in 1982 used at one of the old Computer shows that had all kind of fun parts at the outside swap meet.

[quote author="Viitalahde"]Now I expect the Weller to last a while..[/quote]
I think it should - I have two of them. One is older than me I think - I found it in a heap of junk at a fleemarket...

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

My soldering station is not a Weller, but it is superior to the Radio Shack junk iron I used before. The right shape of tip really makes a big difference.

Just remember, the most expensive stuff isn't always the best, and the cheapest stuff isn't always the worst. :green:

I recently broke down and bought a weller station, and a 1/32" screwdriver tip. Oh, and a bottle of liquid flux. Changed my WHOLE soldering experience.

To keep the Weller tips lasting forever, never wipe them off completely before turning off said iron. Leave some solder on the end to protect the tip. I've had the same 1/32 chisel point on my trusty W60P3 for 10 years of daily service. My dad's been through a dozen in that time.

Kester makes flux pens. I can't live without them now. They're amazing, and my cery secret secret to soldering SMT parts with fine pitches with a regular iron ;-)

-dave

yes, liquid flux is the solution to all life's woes. I bought a bottle of liquid flux and put it in a 99 cent target squeeze bottle that you get by the travel toothpaste. It's like a little tiny sports water bottle, and it delivers a nice drop of flux wherever I need it. That plus q-tips == perfect!

I never saw it before I started working at my new job, but my boss has an old little metal ashtray with steel-wool in it. We use that instead of a sponge. It is GREAT! It will clean off your tip and the older it gets, the more little bits of solder and flux is stuck to the steelwool and it'l clean, and tin your tip in one pass! Beautiful.

Joel

When I get a new sponge, I fold it in half and cut a triangle out of the folded edge so that you end up with a kind of diamond shaped hole when the sponge is opened back out. When you wipe it you can then ensure that all the solder shrapnel goes down the hole and doesn't clog up the top of the sponge :grin:

chef

[quote author="Viitalahde"] Now I expect the Weller to last a while..
[/quote]

I've had (and used!) mine for a bit more than 25years. Replaced the thermoelement once, some 8years ago.

All spare parts are still available for this, more than 30years old design...!

Jakob E.

I'll toss in my 2 cents...

The very best liquid flux dispenser I have used is the Plato Products FD-1-ESD. You can get it from Techni-Tool for USD$5.35. It has a .010 needle and it will make your flux go a loooong way. Of course it means you have to buy a larger bottle of flux so the pens might be more economical for DIY. We have it at work and some of it "leaks" out into my bottle on occasion. :shock:

On those steel wool "sponges": I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole! They will eventually remove the plating from your tip, rendering it trash. I agree with Chef on the hole in the middle of the sponge.

And to keep any tip lasting longer...always leave the tip clean and covered with solder over the whole tip.

If you like the Weller, don't ever use a Metcal, its like crack :thumb: I am working on putting a Metcal rig together from evilbay. Got the power supply box for a MX500 for $48. Gotta get a handpiece and tips and stand. I'm figuring I'll wait and pay about $75 for the remainder. Hows $125 for a Metcal sound? Maybe I'm dreaming!

Peace!

I use a Hakko 937. It's great. It has made soldering fun again. I can heat up heavy guage stuff that normally I would have used a small torch on. I never thought there was a difference between the $8 irons at ShadioRack and the $600 Hakkos.

The best thing is that it heats up in about 30 sec.

Vetsen

cough, cough, Ahem, where I'm from we wipe the hot tip of the iron on our dungarees, blue jeans to you younger lads. Heck, we used to tie an onion and garlic to our belt along side our diagonal cutters to win favor with the ladies!

I've been through two thermostatic switches with my WTCPT and one heating element. This is on 10 hours a day for 18 years; not bad life I guess.

I reacall my first time I was in Tijuana Mexico.... :twisted: wait a minute wrong posting. MY first was with a radiohack and I burnt my hand cause I grabbed the tip being a teenage idiot. It hurt but I thought of it as a right of passage. was I wrong. Since then I have moved onto a weller with adjustable temp control where the label is an acutal tempture reading VS 1-5. I have had it many years and never had a problem. The guys I work with changed out the connector between the iorn and thepower box/temp control with an XLR. it's pretty funny. WE had one connector go bad and the head tech went anal and had them all replaced like that. a three prong connector is a three prong. I want to do that with my DIY boxes and use an XLR for power just to mess with people a lil. :twisted:

I reacall my first time I was in Tijuana Mexico.... :twisted: wait a minute wrong posting. MY first was with a radiohack and I burnt my hand cause I grabbed the tip being a teenage idiot. It hurt but I thought of it as a right of passage. was I wrong. Since then I have moved onto a weller with adjustable temp control where the label is an acutal tempture reading VS 1-5. I have had it many years and never had a problem. The guys I work with changed out the connector between the iorn and thepower box/temp control with an XLR. it's pretty funny. WE had one connector go bad and the head tech went anal and had them all replaced like that. a three prong connector is a three prong. I want to do that with my DIY boxes and use an XLR for power just to mess with people a lil. :twisted: or maybe a midi to ICE cord?