Soldering Iron... Which one??

[I-Hate-Traxxas]

I will be soldering a few things in my next build and from here on out its gonna be brushless so it will get used later to solder a few things so my question is which one do you guys use and how do ya like it?

 

[Sparc]

If you only plan on soldering a few times (as in not daily), you do not need an expensive iron at all. I use a radio shack cheapo 15w for the smaller wires and connections and a 40w for the larger ones. They have lasted me at least 6 years so far and I have used them to do 1000's of connections from car audio to pcb repair.

 

[I-Hate-Traxxas]

Could I get by with just the 15w? I just plan on using it for r/c.

 

[Sparc]

The 15w will be fine if you just plan on doing small wires and connections. If you try to do a large wire or connection with a small iron like a 15w it will take forever to reach the solders melting point and because it takes longer to heat up the end and the heat will spread more through other parts. Like if you tried to solder a 10ga wire with the 15w it would be heating the wire 8~ inches down before the end even got hot enough to melt the solder. Where the 40w would heat up the end of the wire very quickly and allow you to make the connection much quicker with less total heat applied. This doesn't matter as long as nothing you are soldering can be damaged by the heat though.

I'm trying to find a better way to word that if anyone can help.

 

[I-Hate-Traxxas]

This might be a stupid question but would like a 40w work on the small wires too? So could I just go with the 40w and call it good or will it be to much for the smaller wires?

 

[Sparc]

It is fine for smaller wire, but you have to watch it on smaller components like resistors, etc. It's much easier to fry stuff that is heat sensitive with a bigger iron.

 

[I-Hate-Traxxas]

Alright well thank you you have been a huge help!!

 

[whipnet]

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