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What's a good high wattage soldering iron? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by PriorityMotif@lemmy.world to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
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I'm always struggling to desolder high heat circuit boards like pc motherboards because they used high heat solder. Sometimes I can get it hot enough that I can mix in some lower temp solder but it's always a pain. I've also used my rework hot air at 500* plus the soldering iron at 500* and gotten it, but that's a pain as I only have two hands. Right now I'm replacing the Nec/Tonkin caps on a ps3. Fortunately removal is simple with a chisel, but getting the pads ready for soldering is a huge pita.

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[–] sweafa@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i have tested something like this for preheating XD https://www.amazon.de/FOHERE-3-Temperaturstufen-Lebensmittelgrad-Silikon-W%C3%A4rmematte-3-Stunden-Automatik-Abschaltung-Lebensmittelw%C3%A4rmer/dp/B0DDQ1L7WN put pcb on it, max temp, wait 20 min, then use soldering iron and/or hot air

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

That's genius

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 days ago

For multi layer PCBs like motherboards, you want a PCB preheater in addition to a good soldering iron. The ground and power planes will take a lot of heat. If they are already warm, they will need less heat from the soldering iron.

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 4 days ago

I bought an electric desoldering pump and it changed the task of desoldering forever. The tip both heats and sucks.

[–] qupada@fedia.io 2 points 3 days ago

Performance wise, you'd struggle to beat a JBC station.

I have an older version of this one, has been fantastic: https://www.jbctools.com/cdb-soldering-station-product-1605.html

Price-wise, well that's a whole different story. That station is about $600 USD and change, and individual tips start at about $40.

What it does have though is damn near instant heating (it takes longer for the controller in mine to boot than it does to heat), hot-swappable tips (the metal comb-looking thing is to aid pulling the tip from the handle), and nearly 150 shapes of tips to choose from (see https://www.jbctools.com/c245-cartridge-range-long-life-tip-product-19-design-iron.html).

Their other innovation (now somewhat commonplace) is building the element into the tip, letting them put significantly larger power output into comparatively low thermal mass tips. Does wonders for temperature control.

Here's a reasonable comparison of the older-style (Hakko, Weller) separate element/tip design against the JBC's integrated: https://youtu.be/scvS2yeUH00

[–] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 days ago

I’ve always used desoldering braid and patience. Always tinned first with 60/40 rosin core and some flux to get the heat flowing in faster and break the oxide layer.

Maybe finding a stand to hole the reflow gun above your work to free up a hand would help.

A good pcb clamp helps a lot too.