On 2008-02-02, Bruce L Bergman wrote:
On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:00:35 -0600, Ignoramus31882
wrote:

Interesting. My regular $3 soldering iron is fine for wires, but too
large for circuit boards. I will indeed look into soldering stations
and will check out my station thoroughly to see what soldering
possibilities it offers.

Hey, you want to borrow my 175W American Beauty "war club" pencil
iron for doing circuit board repairs? It'll go faster... ;-P

Piker. I've got an "American Beauty" which is something like
450 or 750 Watts. It is my "slaughtering" iron. :-) I used to use it
for quickly defrosting an ancient International Harvester refrigerator
at work. :-)

If you are doing any sort of delicate board repair soldering you
really do need a temperature controlled station. Too much heat can
either ruin the components, or lift the traces off the circuit board,
or both - and now it's trash or a huge patch job. And if the tools
aren't ESD rated, you can wipe out static sensitive components in no
time at all.

I bit the bullet and bought a Weller WESD-51 pencil iron when I
needed one. and the table static mat and wrist straps, etc. But as
you well know there are bargains out there if you can wait and watch.

I really loved my Edsyn "Loner" -- but they seem to be out of
production these days. Really skinny iron and handle, transparent
handle, with a board controlling the tip temperature inside. There also
was a screw-on outer sleeve which could go over the really skinny iron
and hold an extra thermal mass for tasks needing a bit more immediate
heat.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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