Soldering Station Suggestions ?

[T_Minus]

I currently have a weller WE1010NA which works fine, but I think I may have been expecting too much... when I heat up bullet connectors it takes forever :/ Suggestions on a faster heating unit? For now I use my propane heater or torch to warm the bullets then finish off with solder but would like to have more powerful soldering setup for cases like this.

 

[ttabbal]

Looks like a decent iron. What size tip do you have? A big chisel tip freshly tinned should be able to handle some big wire and connectors. I do 10GA with a similar unit. You might also try increasing the temperature setting.

 

[T_Minus]

Looks like a decent iron. What size tip do you have? A big chisel tip freshly tinned should be able to handle some big wire and connectors. I do 10GA with a similar unit. You might also try increasing the temperature setting.

I have a small size now, I ordered a larger\set so I can see if that will increase the heat transfer of what I have to get the job done

From what I've found on google it would appear the price from what I have to next tier is like a 2x price jump, but more like 3-4x to get int0 120w+ systems.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Yeah, that Weller should be a fine iron with the proper tip for the job.

FWIW, I have a Hakko FX-888 (older analog version) and it works great for my hobby/general repair needs, including some heavier RC battery/motor connectors. Though I don't think it's any better/worse than yours.

 

[T_Minus]

Good to know about the Hakko I had looked at those too.

I'm hoping the larger tips heats it up faster that's for sure as I don't solder much, and having it take al ong time the few times I need it def. do suck

The bullets I tried were only 4mm too, I have some 6.5mm on the way for my higher powered RC... May just need to use the mapp gas torch to pre-heat

 

[Dawg10]

The WE1010NA has a full-time spot on my bench. But, it being only 70W, I keep a 140/100W Weller soldering gun handy for the bigger jobs.

 

[T_Minus]

The WE1010NA has a full-time spot on my bench. But, it being only 70W, I keep a 140/100W Weller soldering gun handy for the bigger jobs.

Hahaha, sounds like my original plan... my wife told me my original plan (I forgot, apparently,...) was to get the 1010NA, and then, if needed... get a "bigger unit" and keep the WE1010 for day to day \ general usage, LOL.. Apparently I've hit that wall, well, depending if hte bigger tip helps

What larger unit you do have? Anything digital or just a larger\powerful unit?

 

[Dawg10]

I have a pretty broad range of metal-joining tools on hand; it seems like I've always had a Weller gun.
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=...D650PK-Industrial-Soldering-Gun-Kit-0.jpg&f=1

Besides the Weller iron and gun, there's a simple $5 pencil iron for 'portable' use, a small butane torch that's perfect for heat shrink, a couple propane torches as multi-purpose heating devices (good for thawing the gate lock or preheating aluminum), ox-acetylene for brute force cutting and welding, 90A and 180A Lincoln migs, and a 200A Miller tig. Probably some others too.

 

[T_Minus]

I have a pretty broad range of metal-joining tools on hand; it seems like I've always had a Weller gun.
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http://www.masoncroft.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Weller-D650PK-Industrial-Soldering-Gun-Kit-0.jpg&f=1

Besides the Weller iron and gun, there's a simple $5 pencil iron for 'portable' use, a small butane torch that's perfect for heat shrink, a couple propane torches as multi-purpose heating devices (good for thawing the gate lock or preheating aluminum), ox-acetylene for brute force cutting and welding, 90A and 180A Lincoln migs, and a 200A Miller tig. Probably some others too.

Hahaha, sound like me Except I'm just now getting beyond 40wd for soldering I'm unsure what my weller old-school 90's era gun does, honestly, never got it out for this project haha.


Lincoln Precision TIG 225
Lincoln MIG 250
Oxy\Acet setup w\max\fullsize tanks.
Hypertherm Plasma (forget hte model have upgraded a lot over last 10 years)

I actually turned in my 1920s era cylinder a couple years back, oldest I've personally had

 

[Dawg10]

Hang onto that old Weller gun; the new ones aren't worth shit compared to them. Teenage me got one for Christmas, maybe 1972 or so. It died a horrible death; they don't bounce very well. I have a Hypertherm plasma as well; best shop tool ever.

re: tig; have you tried a gas lens yet? It makes an absolutely huge difference.

 

[T_Minus]

Hang onto that old Weller gun; the new ones aren't worth shit compared to them. Teenage me got one for Christmas, maybe 1972 or so. It died a horrible death; they don't bounce very well. I have a Hypertherm plasma as well; best shop tool ever.

re: tig; have you tried a gas lens yet? It makes an absolutely huge difference.

I'll have to dig up the old weller Good to hear, mines a 1990s era garage-sale score probably have a couple more at my parents mostly the 40w pencil-style I'd imagine maybe 1 more of the gun-style. Growing up that + a glue gun was all we needed to have fun with DIY

I have a gas lens but I haven't tried it actually. I was thinking the other day how little use my TIG has seen in the last 10 years. I think I'll probably be using TIG for some RC truck projects here in the next few months though

I really like the Hypertherm 45 size compared to my old 600 and 1250. I'm hoping in the next 6-12mo to get another CNC plasma, this time around it should be much more sophisticated than the unit I had 13 years ago, and a machine torch, and keep the 45 for hand-held jobs About to hack into a 40' shipping container, it will make a nice barn

 

[Dawg10]

CNC... I have successfully talked myself out of that fork many, many times. Bought a small mill and a decent lathe 35 years ago; manual is fine for the one-off and maintenance stuff I do.

I wanted to try my hand with .040 electrodes; I read somewhere that using a gas lens setup made for a happier experience. They were right. You can run a 1/2” stickout and have fun. Liked it so much I use it for everything but Al.

.040 is very low current, might be good for tiny steel RC parts.