What Soldering Iron do you use?
 

Looking at buying a new Soldering Iron.. What soldering iron do you use for all of your RC needs?

just a cheap weller 60 watt from radio shack. Its never let me down.

I use a weller soldering station. I really like it, and the adjustable settings will allow for a wide range of stuff.

I just ordered a Hakko 936 from here:
http://www.bulldawgrc.com/ha936sost.html

Before that, a Weller 40W and a Hobbico 60W. The Weller doesn't get hot enough to solder large connectors or NiMh's easily and the Hobbico 60W keeps burning up tips (of course it was only $6).

Use an 80watt Weller for batt building, a123 work, and big conns. Does not burn up tips. My 40watt hobbico did that really well, lol. Light stuff (18th scale) use a weller gun. My 80watt came from here -

http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/search.php

whatever home depot sells... I think it is a 60watt but I am not sure. works great with the deans racing solder I use

I use a 10+year old ungar 40w for the smaller stuff (connectors) and a 100w for bigger jobs. Not sure of the brand of the 100w, got it from ebay

This one. I have had it for over five years and it still works great.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXPR36&P=ML

Yeah, my little hobbico iron burns through tips left and right. I have a weller soldering gun for big stuff and need to buy another iron for my little stuff. I would like to get a soldering station like linc referred to.

Some pistol grip thingy with a turbo trigger and red and green leds on top from home depot. I haven't had a long lasting wand iron nor owned a weller.

Im looking at getting a decent soldering iron but at the moment I am using a cheap 60w

Hakko 936.. the one with the bigger iron.

I also have the cheap red handle weller 40w and huge 80w irons... the fatty is great for batteries. They only problem with the cheap wellers is that they will burn themselves up... not an iron to have on all day, like at the track etc.

The hakko can stay on all day, no problem.... esp if not turned up all the way

Same exact thing I use. I've been using the same original tip for at least a year and a half. But I do clean it quite often while using the iron, and turn the temperature down to the minimum (about 300 deg., I think) when I'm not using it. About a year ago I accidentally shorted the iron across a 10s A123 brick (Dewalt 36v pack) while unsoldering it. The iron has a nice scar from that incident, but it definitely didn't affect the performance.

This iron is also capable of soldering the positive side of A123 cells. For those who don't know, the positive side of A123s is the entire ALUMINUM outer shell.

I wouldnt even need to leave my Hakko on all day. Its ready to solder in 30 seconds after flipping it on. I use the 936 at home too. I would not hedsitate to recomend it to anyone. however at the track I just toss an old 40W radio shack iron with a bent tip in the bag just incase. It works, but thats about all I can say.

I use a Goot 240V 46W Iron. It is a nice iron and can do the 12 gauge wire. Not sure how much further it would go though. I'd love a proper station but they are expensive.

You will love it! I have the same one, with a upgrade wrap to match my radio:na: And its awesome! Nothing better

I use a Weller 35watt iron that is about 20 years old still with the original tip.

I also have a Weller Pyropen (about 2 years old) that I use as my primary. Runs off of butane and gets about 1 hour per refill. More than plenty of heat to solder 8-10ga. wire not even on full power. Heats up in about 1 minute, uses electric ignition and is completely portable - and it's a Weller.

I don't have experience with some of the other hig-end units people are mentioning here, but I can say DON'T get the cheapo Radio Shack version as they never work right and the solder just doesn't melt right or stick to the tip.

use a weller Soldering station, got it for free when company closed..
and a weller 110 Watt solder gun with wood engraving tip.... my favourite for soldering big fat wires..

I got my Hakko 936 in last night and used it to fix a couple of wires on one of my daughter's toys. It makes my weller 40W station look pathetic. It also heats up stupid quick! I wish I had bought one of these years ago.

I recently bought a Radio shack Soldering station from radio shack. It was originally around $80 and i got it for $40. I couldnt be happier with it. The sale is still going to.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

Thanks for that link and recommendation skellyo. I picked one up on sale for 89 bucks and used it the first time today. This thing is nice, easy to use, heats up quick, has a nice set of tips with it, and there are orange flames on it to boot!

I can highly recommend this soldering station as the best bang for the buck I have used.

I have used a Weller 40 watt and at times wouldnt get hot enough and when I got my MMM I knew it wouldnt be enough for the 6.5mm conectors so I got the Weller 100/140 and havnt looked back

I have three - a Weller SP40l iron that burn tips like crazy, and then othertimes wouldnt burn its way through toilet paper. I also have a Weller Universal 140/100 gun that I've used quite often in the last year. But it too has recently started operating erratically. Sometimes it heats, sometimes it doesnt. The handle itself has started to warm up after being plugged in too long.

Why do they say not to use a gun for soldering batteries? Is it because they typically put out too much heat?

Second question: Is that Hako sold anywhere outside the RC hobby world (ie. without the flame job?).

Hakko 936 here,also with the large iron. What a difference from the cheapo's would also recommend. Best tool I've bought for RC

thee flames the cool part lol.. amainhobbies has the 936 sans flames link Ebay usually has a good selection too. Mgm electronics usually has a bunch link

I use 2 - 80watt Weller and a 100/140 Weller gun. 90% of what I need to do can be done with the gun. But for batts and bullet conns 5mm and up, 80watt iron gets the nodd. Much faster and just does the better job.

Check the nuts that hold the tip (if they are still made this way - my gun is ~40yr old) - they will loosen over time getting hot/cold and heat transfter goes way down if they are even a little loose.

For batteries, you don't want heat conducted into the cell to possibly damage and weaken the batt. A gun takes too long to melt solder on the end of the batt and the batt bar mainly cause tip is small and heat is conducted away too quickly. What used to take me 5 or 6sec with a gun to do on a batt, now takes just about 1sec with the 80watt iron. I would have to redo some of the gun joints too cause I could pop the bar off. That doesn't happen with the iron.

Hakko is available lots of places outside RC world. You can find it without the decaling if you want.

Hakko is a pretty big manufacturer of soldering/desoldering equipment and the 936 is about the cheapest they make. They have a lot of high end professional equipment used outside the rc world. It is night and day soldering with the Hakko versus anything else I have tried including weller and other known brands.

I was also impressed with bulldawgrc where I got mine. Excellent service and communication along with extremely quick shipping.

The decals are just stickers that come with it. You apply them if you want to otherwise it's just plain black.

i just bought a hobbico 80w, anyone ever use them?

I bought the 60watt version and if the 80 is like the 60, buy some extra tips. They tend to disappear.

I have a hobbico iron I bought in a pinch one day. It works okay but burns through tips left and right.

I use a HAKKO 936 solering station . I have a nice weller rebuildable stick iron for back up .

I am using the 40w weller station for all my soldering needs; anything from circut boards to 5.5 bullet conectors and 12gauge wire. works well for me and it was not to expensive

I use a Hakko 936. I forget how many watts it is, but it gets up to 896 degrees Fahrenheit. I just recently got it from Fry's and I love it so far. The pen has a nice rubberized grip and it seems to heat up pretty fast.

I already have 3 soldering irons but all this talk of this hakko makes me want to buy another.

I am pretty sure the Hakko 936 is 60 watts...

Yep, Hakko 936 is 60 watts.

Just to throw it out there, I'm still using the ORIGINAL tip my Hakko 936 came with, from probably a year and a half ago. Doesn't even look like it has corroded. But, I clean the tip a lot with a wet sponge and almost always have fresh solder on it.

how much was it at Frys?

I've got the Weller WES51 it has 60 wats, 120v & 60HZ bad boy!..

I love it and use it all the time..

Well, you all inspired me, and I managed to find a used 936 locally. I'm trying to think of a good way to destroy my crappy pile of soon to be landfill.....

I can't recall exactly how much, but I remember that I bought it with a Hakko HJ5000 heat gun for under 100 bucks. And I think the gun was around $25. I'd grab the receipts but I think I tossed them. Sorry :neutral: