Soldering Help Q & A's - RC-Monster Forums

03.14.2006, 04:28 PM

Brijar, thanks for the video, that is a HUGE help!

brijar · 03.14.2006, 05:43 PM

macfjej, I have that exact same iron too. I just recently got a chisel tip at Radio Shack and it seemed to be a night and day difference. This is what I got for mine, only it came with 2 of the smaller chisel tips. There are light duty tips, but I'm not real sure about them because they are "iron clad". Just like Brian G said, don't drip the solder on the joint. I simply tin both surfaces, put the wire on top of the connector/other wire and push down on them with my soldering iron, melting the solder around the joint. Only one of my joints has failed so far and it was due to incorrect plugging. Be careful not to melt the connector. Just make sure you use good solder, good 12awg wire, good quality connectors, and/or battery bars and you should have no problem with that iron. Don't forget to be patient too:025:.

Damon and Johnny, thank you, I'm glad y'all like it:027:.

Brijar!!!

Scoob · 03.15.2006, 08:20 AM

I used to be the worst at soldering and I hated it but I finally got it and am pretty decent now. I don't know how much it will help you but the single biggest help for me was using a wet sponge to clean the tip. My tips always got to the point where they would not heat the solder and when it did the solder would just fall off the tip. Cleaning the tip took care of both of these problems. Every couple minutes clean the tip and you can get alot of the black off. It seems like my tips always have to "break in" before they'll transfer heat worth a darn. I don't use the pointy part of the tip, back away from it a little and look for the shiny part to tranfer heat best.

brijar · 03.15.2006, 08:39 AM

I noticed with my screw-on tips, they didn't transfer heat that well. Then I saw somewhere that you need to use pliers to really screw them on there. After trying this, it seemed to help a lot with heating. Scoob, if you have screw-on tips, you might want to try using some pliers and tighten it down for better contact and heat transfer. Make sure you don't over-do-it, else you might strip the threads. Just tight enough so you can't easily unscrew it with your fingers.

macfjej, like I said before, I have that exact soldering iron. It has worked fine for me and will probably work fine for you. I do, however, suggest at least a 60w iron for soldering batterys together so it will melt the solder faster and not heat up the battery. I just had to take my batteries to my LHS to get them soldered, but I may just get a stronger iron next time because one of the cells blew up after a few runs:035: and I don't want to blame them, but I think it was due to incorrect soldering. I think you can get a pretty cheap 60w iron from Tower Hobbies for about $6. Clicky!

Good Luck,
Brijar!!!

BrianG · 03.15.2006, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brijar

I noticed with my screw-on tips, they didn't transfer heat that well. Then I saw somewhere that you need to use pliers to really screw them on there. After trying this, it seemed to help a lot with heating. Scoob, if you have screw-on tips, you might want to try using some pliers and tighten it down for better contact and heat transfer. Make sure you don't over-do-it, else you might strip the threads. Just tight enough so you can't easily unscrew it with your fingers.

That is good advice. I would like to add that you should periodically check this, especially when the iron is hot (use pliers!). The cooling and heating cycles tends to loosen the threads after a while.