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Soldering iron

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CageyH View Drop Down
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    Posted: 21 Dec 2020 at 9:00am
I have just finished building myself a class AB power amplifier.
One thing I did realise was that a decent soldering iron may have been better than my adjustable 50W maplins iron.

What is a decent iron for non-professional use?

As posted elsewhere, I will be building a phono stage next, and then I may move on to a pre-amp.


Edited by CageyH - 21 Dec 2020 at 10:37am
Kevin
European loan coordinator, based near Toulouse, France.
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RichW View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RichW Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Dec 2020 at 10:36am
A while ago I built a DAC kit & used a 90 Watt iron.
The design had internal ground planes & a low wattage iron struggled when soldering components
to it. The joint could be made very quickly with the high watt iron.
This might be irrelevant with your job.


Majestic/Enigma, Accession MM & MC.
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gwebster View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gwebster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Dec 2020 at 9:14am
Back in the day, one of the best irons around would have been a 30W Weller with the magnetic temperature control tips. These days a larger wattage iron with good electronic temperature control is your best bet. A couple of different size wedge or chisel tips are also handy.

My current iron is a 90W Ersa i-con Pico. It's great for through hole boards or SMT stuff.
I use a 3mm chisel tip for the SMT stuff and I've had no problems doing really small packages (TSSOP ones with 0.5mm pitch between pins). For larger stuff onto a ground plane, I'd change to a 5mm wedge tip.

If I was in the market for a new iron at present, I'd probably get a Haako FX888 70W iron.
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CageyH View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CageyH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Dec 2020 at 11:00am
Thanks for the response.
I shall have a look at the model mentioned.
Kevin
European loan coordinator, based near Toulouse, France.
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