On 14 Sep, 16:39, (Steve Firth) wrote:
Adrian wrote:
I'd say that the OP doesn;t need anything like that amount of power -
and is likely to do more harm than good with an over-powerful iron.

My experience is the other way around.

I would suggest Steve, that you have sod-all experience of soldering
lead and lots of experience of soldering lead-tin eutectic alloys.
It's a whole different ballgame.

You need an iron of about 75-80W, which are just about affordable. For
commercial use you would like something of 150W or so. Any bigger is
great, but you'll want a power controller and probably a second
(lighter) iron for smaller work. I don't know of any adequately
reliable temperature controlled irons at over 150W (where "reliable"
factors in the vast and unwarranted cost of the damned things).

Lead work can use a _lower_ powered iron than copper foil on windw-
sized panels, because you're only soldering joins, not reflowing
solder along a whole edge. If you're not working against the clock
(i.e. most hobby stuff) then you can allow a lower powered iron to
recover temperature between lead joints. If you're trying to reflow a
smooth bead along 3' of foil, there's no substitute for watts.