IRON TEMPS

burger-patty-and-bacon

burger-patty-and-bacon

Active member
I spoiled myself and bought a new iron. An X-TRONIC 4000 series with digital adjustment. It is so much nicer than my 30 year old Radio Shack iron that it makes me giddy. I'm using a mega fine point tip and it fits perfectly into the PCB trace hole. A pleasure.

WHAT IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE TEMP TO USE FOR PCB WORK? I have never had an actual adjustable iron. I'm on 380C right now and it's working well. GOOD?
 
Hey there! When I started I had my iron a bit low around 600f in fear of burning up components. Now that I’m more comfortable with soldering I’ve found between 750f-800f to be the sweet spot for me. So your 380c seems to be right there, maybe even try 400c. Makes quick work of flowing the solder and I’m confident in the joint. In other words, hot and quick works best for me. Trick is to be able to get a nice flow without leaving the iron on the board too long. I’ll hold the iron on the leg/pcb for about 1.5-2 seconds and that seems to work well. Hope that helps!
 
+1 to good iron difference.

Default on mine is 350ºC, but I bumped it to 450ºC because I was having trouble with flow (probably due to bad solder).

Get some alligator clips or metal clothes-pegs to attach to legs/leads between the solder joint and sensitive components, helps keep the heat on the join and dissipates some before it can fry the component. I socket all ICs, transistors and most diodes (for sure glass ones), so the heat-dissipater clips aren't needed often.
 
peccary said:
How's the graphic EQ, though?
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PUMP DAT BASS🤘

fig said:
induction eh? you DO love the tools.
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I mean, I am serenading it in that picture.

I get a lot of side eyes from guys at work...what, with my veto pro PAC filled to the gills with knipex, jokari, pb swiss, stahlwillie and wera. And my second veto pro pac filled to the gills with Bluetooth connected gauges and sensors and the like.

"Fancy tools make for a lousy tech" they say.

"Husky makes...uhhhhhh....actually, some pretty decent tools for the money" I reply. Then I hit em with "oh, sweet are those the new channel locks? Yeah, I appreciate that they still make 'em in the USA, I've just found with the last few pairs I had that they're tempered on the soft side and the teeth wear off quickly. Ooh, have you seen Klein's new 11-in-one precision screwdrivers?" *Fumbles around in toolbag as coworker slowly escapes*
 
Are you using leaded or lead free? Lead free will need higher in general but the 380c you settled on should be decent for either. I use lead free and run 350-385 depending on how fast I'm soldering successive joints
 
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Bumping old thread here, just wanted to say holy cow you guys run your irons hot.

When using lead solder I usually set my iron at 450 F. I was trying to use lead-free today, and had a heck of time until I decided to bump up the temp to 525 F. Now I thought that was hot, so I checked to see if there was a thread on this. After finding this thread I hear everyone is using > 600 F...

Have I been doing it wrong all along?
 
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spi said:
Bumping old thread here, just wanted to say holy cow you guys run your irons hot.

When using lead solder I usually set my iron at 450 F. I was trying to use lead-free today, and had a heck of time until I decided to bump up the temp to 525 F. Now I thought that was hot, so I checked to see if there was a thread on this. After finding this thread I hear everyone is using > 600 F...

Have I been doing it wrong all along?
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Not at all. If you are not experiencing issues with your solder joints then sweet!
Also, solder temps vary, and so do pad and pin sizes.
 
spi said:
Bumping old thread here, just wanted to say holy cow you guys run your irons hot.

When using lead solder I usually set my iron at 450 F. I was trying to use lead-free today, and had a heck of time until I decided to bump up the temp to 525 F. Now I thought that was hot, so I checked to see if there was a thread on this. After finding this thread I hear everyone is using > 600 F...

Have I been doing it wrong all along?
Click to expand...

350˚C is a joy. But you can't dawdle. I solder quickly. But I wouldn't recommend that temperature to a beginner.
 
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