A tip for your tip?

[spi]

I was reading the last Premier Guitar issue (the pedal issue), and there's an article that walks through how to build a BYOC delay pedal.

One thing that caught my eye was this tip:



Do you really shutoff your iron between steps? I only shut if off if it's not going to be used for like 30 minutes, or if I'm leaving the room for more than a couple of minutes.

 

[mnemonic]

I don’t know if it matters but usually try not to power cycle anything unnecessarily. If it’s gonna be sat there for 10 minutes while I’m doing something else, I’ll just turn the temperature down to the minimum which I think is 100c on mine.

I’ll turn it off if I’m leaving the room for more than a minute though as it’s chinesium and I don’t trust it that much.

 

[VanWhy]

I guess if you are using an exhaust system you wouldn't need to do this? Not that I think most people here are doing that anyway.

 

[Harry Klippton]

Yes I always do that

 

[Fizz]

Mine turns itself off.. or at least lowers the temp automatically after a certain time.

 

[jimilee]

Nope and nope.

 

[jwin615]

If it's more than 5 minutes, yes, after I tin it. Just put the 3rd tip on my iron in ~13 years. Though, it's use has gone up steadily the last couple of years and I don't expect 7 years out of it this time. Some guys at work who leave there irons on for hours go through 2 tips a week(they also use wet sponges and never tin them which probably doesn't help(oxides anyone)
Also, ordered some cheap tips that are supposedly for the 936 and and a hakko branded one (concave fine point *chefs kiss*)just to see. Worlds apart. Buy the OEM ones.
Now, I don't think 10 minutes on on the occasion is going to matter much, but goldfish brain over here know better."I'll just turn the broiler on for like 2 minutes..."
But tinning before storage and *soft copper wool(not copper coated steel) I believe makes a huge difference in tip lifespan.
It's also not a big deal to turn it off and on once it becomes part of your routine. When you're on the last couple of components, flip it on and it's there waiting when you're ready

 

[Laundryroom David]

I was reading the last Premier Guitar issue (the pedal issue), and there's an article that walks through how to build a BYOC delay pedal.

One thing that caught my eye was this tip:

View attachment 57374

Do you really shutoff your iron between steps? I only shut if off if it's not going to be used for like 30 minutes, or if I'm leaving the room for more than a couple of minutes.

No.

I turn off my iron when I’m leaving the room or when I’m done for the day. I populate all components before turning on my iron fwiw.

 

[p_wats]

My iron has an auto sleep that lowers the temp and an auto shut off if I leave and forget it (which I swear I never do...shh)

 

[peccary]

I have mine set to sleep after like 20 minutes, where it turns the temp way down but then heats back up in like 30 seconds or so. But I don't turn it off till I'm ready to shut everything down.

 

[GizzWizzKing]

I populate and turn on to solder then turn off as soon as I can. Generally that goes in rows for resistors/diodes depending on the layout or all at once for smaller boards. Etc etc repeat and repeat turning on and off when the next grouping is complete. When I was learning I just sorta accepted that keeping the iron on when not in use wasn't the best practice.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Likewise, I populate my board, turn on the soldering iron, suck down some coffee then do all the soldering and turn it off. If I'm building an amp tho, I leave it on. Pretty much not possible to put all the wires in place and solder in mass. I shut it off when I'm leaving the room because: CATS

 

[MBFX]

I turn it down. I use a Weller soldering station with a rheostat. 2 is a good idle temp.

 

[Alan W]

My iron has the auto ramp down and auto sleep modes, but before I had this one, I typically would turn it off if I knew that it’d be 30 minutes or more of down time. Part of me doesn’t like the on/off cycling, but the more modern set ups that do the ramping up and down make a lot of sense.

I’m strongly in the brass wool (no damp sponges!) camp, and if the iron sits there for more than a minute, I tin the tip and leave a blob of solder on it.

 

[andare]

No because I use a Pinecil and it cools down to 150 C automatically after 2 minutes of inactivity and it shuts itself down after 10. Back up to temp in 5-10 seconds. Perfect for the constant pauses of pedal building,

 

[Laundryroom David]

It’s kinda cool that there are so many different irons and ways of getting to the end result.

 

[MBFX]

No because I use a Pinecil and it cools down to 150 C automatically after 2 minutes of inactivity and it shuts itself down after 10. Back up to temp in 5-10 seconds. Perfect for the constant pauses of pedal building,

How do you like the Pinecil? Seems pretty awesome.

 

[andare]

How do you like the Pinecil? Seems pretty awesome.

It's great for PCBs and pot lugs. I wish they made the tips available to buy individually. I'd like to buy the chisel tip but it comes with 3 other tips that are useless to me at a hefty price. I already had to buy 3 useless tips to have the hoof type.

I had a lot of trouble soldering to turrets.

For soldering to the back of pots it's absolutely terrible. Just can't do it. I tried everything. Apparently it only manages 15W at the tip when the workpiece has a large mass. Even the medium sized knife tip can't do it.

So I recommend it for pedals but if you have the space I'd just go for a T12 station because I think those can solder to the back of pots. Or get the Aixun T3A station. It's 200W so it can even solder freaking copper pipes and very thick wires.

For pedals I couldn't go back to a station that doesn't cool down and shuts off automatically.