Soldering Iron

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri Jul 25 16:33:00 2003

> I need a precision soldering iron (long needle like tip) for electronics use,
> any suggestions?

There was a small and cheap Weller (I think it was a 12W element, and
certainly not temperature controlled) that had a very find (0.25mm)
needle bit available. I have no idea if this iron was ever sold in the US
(the one I saw was 240V), but it was useable for SMD work.

> I have an scsi chip on an amiga addon board that got wacked in shipping and a
> few of the pins have broken off from their solder pads (its a surface mount
> chip and none of the pins are broke just desoldered). My current 23 watt
> soldering iron has a tip thats just too big for this kind of work.

Well, oftem you can use an iron that's too large if you're careful.
Resolder all the pins, don't worry too much about bridges. Then clean up
the bridges and blobs with desolder braid (soldamop, whatever you call
it). Make sure there are no shorts before applying power.

Are you sure the pins are desoldered? Often this sort of damage rips the
pads off the board, which means you have a much worse repair.

-tony
Received on Fri Jul 25 2003 - 16:33:00 BST