On March 30, Tony Duell wrote:
> > All that person needs to do is get a soldering iron, solder, some bits
>
> Do uorself a favour and buy a good temperature-controlled soldering
> station. It will make life a lot easier and do less damage. I am used to
> a Weller TCP iron (this is a very common one, at least in the UK). A few
> years back I attempted to use a friend's cheap non-controller iron, and I
> found I simply couldn't work on multi-layer PCBs with it. I went back to
> the lab where I was emplyed at the time to borrow a Weller TCP to do the
> repair...
I strongly second this! A cheap crap soldering iron (like the $7
specials that I used to by at Radio Shack when I was a kid) will
produce crap results for pretty much ANY person regardless of skill or
experience. I used a Weller TCP like Tony's for many years; it was
wonderful in every way. About 6-8 months ago I picked up a Metcal
iron (an SP-PW1-10), which is even a huge step above said venerable
Weller TCP...I recommend them very highly. Try one and you'll
understand what I mean. :-)
It really doesn't pay to use cheap soldering irons. You'll save a few
bucks, but it'll cost you parts, boards, fingers, and the fun of
soldering!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire "...it's leaving me this unpleasant,
St. Petersburg, FL damp feeling on my shorts..." -Sridhar
Received on Sat Mar 30 2002 - 15:46:38 GMT