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Originally Posted by trontek
needs to be heated enough to melt the solder. You will most probably end up with a cold solder joint if you use the iron to melt the solder and then attempt to "stick" the connection together.
Comments anyone?  |
Yup, you never want to heat the solder, you want to heat the joint, then melt the solder onto the joint. If I can, I don't even touch the solder to the iron, just iron to joint, and solder to joint. Thats part of what makes the 'cold heat' thing pretty handy, it can't melt solder directly, it has to heat the joint first. Avoids that newbie tendency to get a gob of solder on the tip and then try to 'wipe' or 'glob' it onto the joint.
I still prefer more heat, I use a 25w/35w switchable, and usually leave it on 35. I keep trying to justify one of those cool temp controlled units..
This surprisingly cheap unit really tempts me.. I bet it would fit nicely on my workbench, and would definately be a step above the basic handheld units.
http://www.web-tronics.com/aueltecosost.html
Peace,
Sam