On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:38:31 -0700, Smitty Two
wrote:

In article ,
Archimedes' Lever wrote:

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:21:13 -0700, Smitty Two
wrote:

In article ,
Archimedes' Lever wrote:

As far as temperature, I agree with you. I've never found a need to
solder anything at less than 800F. Smaller parts just require shorter
dwell time.

This one is off the mark. Perhaps you meant "at MORE than 800°F"
That would certainly be an upper max for me, and it is quite easy to
solder at much lower temperatures. Well over a 100 degree differential,
and that is significant.

Pardon my ambiguity. What I meant to say was "anything other than 800F."
That's the upper limit on most fixed-temperature tips, or adjustable
irons.


Yes, and despite most folks cranking the damned things up that high,
basic soldering operations (pre-RoHS) were NEVER meant to be performed at
that high a temperature. Even on big 0.092" stock with lots of Copper.
In that case, one should pre-heat the whole assembly a couple hundred °F,
which will insure that all the solder joints wet well and flow through
properly.

Uh-huh. I've personally hand soldered hundreds of thousands of joints at
800F, and overseen the soldering of millions. Turning down the flame has
only one result: It takes too damn long to build the board. It's sort of
like the clock speed on a computer. It doesn't matter much if something
takes 1 second instead of 1/10 second, but it makes a big difference if
it takes an hour instead of 6 minutes. When I was a kid I built some
Heathkit stuff and spent 30 seconds making every solder connection,
because the iron was underpowered and I didn't know enough to know it.
Machine soldering is different, of course,

The sinking capacity of a soldering iron has little to do with the
temperature it sits at and claims to be maintaining. The ability of the
iron to keep a tip at a given temperature is what makes a good iron, and
no, those **** dial types with 800° at the upper end of the dial are NOT
good at maintaining a set point, and there is NO spec ANYWHERE that uses
800° as an iron tip temp far assembly, even by hand.

And even at 650° or 700°, a good soldering tech can perform a good
solder joint in the same amount of time with a proper iron that holds its
set point properly.

but for hand work, 800 is
perfect for everything and anything.

Proof that you do not really know anything about it. So despite all
the talk about dwell times, and claim of "oversight" of others, your
decisions about ignoring the facts and standards the industry has known
about for decades means that your credibility for actually knowing what
is going on fell right through the floor.