Soldering Iron Temperature?

[MaximRecoil]

Ok. I'm conviced. I am going to try to find a reasonably priced Metcal soldering station. Now, what tips do I need? I see that you recommend the 126. Do you use that for everything or do you use different tips for different applications?

Jeff

I used the STTC-126 for pretty much everything at work; everything except for when I needed the special surface-mount IC removal tip cartridges; and everything at home. I don't have any of those expensive IC removal tips at home, nor have I ever needed them, because nothing is surface-mount on classic arcade machines.

At work I did mostly through-hole soldering (terminal blocks like these), and several times a day I did surface-mount soldering, on things like tiny IC legs and components about the size of half a grain of rice. The 126 tip is small and has a nice angle to it, which allows you to do the tiny stuff; but with the way Metcals work; i.e., their incredible recovery time; you can do larger jobs with small tips with ease, such as the through-hole terminal blocks.

The 126 is a 700 degree F tip, while the 026 is the same tip, but 600 degrees. I think they make 900 and 500 degree versions too, but I don't know what anyone would use those for. The same numbering scheme applies to all the STTC tip styles; 0 = 600 degrees, and 1 = 700 degrees.

Edit: BTW, a few people at work preferred the STTC-125, which is a straight tip version of the 126. I hated the 125, and refused to use it.

 

[R3LL1K]

Cool, I'll order the Edsyn unit that I linked in above...

Just heat until the solder is liquid and then suck it off with this thing? Does that about cover it?

Just out of curiosity, where does this thing suck it to? You have to be able to discard it somehow...

They also sell the Soldapult at Fry's.

I use the crappy Radioshack plunger suckers everyone seems to hate. It works fine for me. It's a lot better than the little red bulbs that aren't worth a crap. I like the one handed operation.

 

[DogP]

You guys can call me crazy, but we've got Metcals at work... I don't really like them. I personally find that they heat slower and don't solder as well as my Hakko. The thing I do like about them is the feel of the iron, with the handle closer to the tip, but I was kinda excited to finally get to try one a couple years ago, and I was very disappointed.

One of the other guys at work had a Pace station which I used for a little while, and I definitely preferred that over the Metcal... I didn't spend enough time with it to say I like it better than my Hakko (performance wise), but the feel was good. Of course for classic arcade repair (cap kits and stuff) there's really no need for a top of the line iron w/ fine point tips... a good temp controlled iron with good clean tips is perfectly fine.

Oh... and 650 for normal soldering, 700, or slightly above for large solder joints (especially ones on large ground planes).

DogP

 

[MaximRecoil]

You guys can call me crazy, but we've got Metcals at work... I don't really like them. I personally find that they heat slower and don't solder as well as my Hakko. The thing I do like about them is the feel of the iron, with the handle closer to the tip, but I was kinda excited to finally get to try one a couple years ago, and I was very disappointed.

Room temperature to 700 degrees in 7 seconds is slow? Which Hakko can reach operating temperature faster than 7 seconds? I'd like to see it.

 

[MaximRecoil]

Okay, my Metcal takes 10 seconds to get hot enough to melt through a piece of solder wire. It may be able to improve on that time slightly under more ideal conditions. The room temp is 50F in here rather than a more typical 70F, and my tip was "tinned" from the last time I used it, meaning there was more mass to heat up. Additionally, my Metcal uses an older RFG-30 power supply, while the newer PS2E and MX-500 power supplies are supposed to be more powerful, and the newest MX-5000 is supposed to be nearly twice as powerful as the MX-500.

Here is a video (the relevant part is from the 30 second mark to the 40 second mark).