On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:27:08 +0800, "Nik Rim" wrote:


"Nik Rim" wrote in message
.au...

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
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, but for hand work, 800 is
perfect for everything and anything.





Typo - should have said 800F tips......

I concur - 700F tips are great - no problems in the last 15 years. The
only time I go for a 700F is terminating some cables where the insulation
is super sensitive to the heat and shrinks back or melts through.


You are both idiots that would never sit very long at one of my
benches.

Not to mention that neither of you would make it more than a day in a
NASA cert course either. Not with a stupid mind set like that.