Recommend a soldering iron

Misc · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Karma :

Evening,

Can anyone recommend an iron for a really small job (iphone logic board) i snapped off. I've got an iron which was only cheap & never soldered anything small, usually connecting wires.

This is what i'll be attempting

Obviously the cheaper the better, but one that still does the job nicely.

Thumbs Up

Frost · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 May 2004 Karma :

You can get ones with interchangeable tips. I'd get one and spend reasonable cash on it as it's a very useful multipurpose tool. A slightly larger tip and extra skill means you will need less contact time to transfer the solder and are less likely to overheat components. I say this as a guy i know made a tip out of some wire. It was tiny so he struggled to get any meaningful amount of solder to melt with it. Took him ages to solder something that looked really neat, but didn't work Laughing

TomCB · Scooby Slapper Joined: 04 Dec 2008 Karma :

i usually use a 15watt antex iron for small electronics.

https://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=4052&C=SO&U=strat15

£18.

but you might needs a finer tip for it. (i did, it was 3 for £10.)

https://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=220775&OrderCode=N12FR
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Misc · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Karma :

TomCB · Scooby Slapper Joined: 04 Dec 2008 Karma :

Dazbo666 · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Jun 2004 Karma :

I have an Antex soldering iron and spring stand from Maplin. I think Machine Mart do them too.... available with interchangeable tips that you can buy as extras
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Misc · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Karma :

Itchy · Super Spammer Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Karma :

NOOOoo the maplined linked one is rubbish, 15w isn't enough it takes ages just to melt some fairly standard solder.

Maplin do one which looks more like a gun or get something with more wattage else you spend ages holding it in place and more potential to go wrong.
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owdamer · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Karma :

Good luck. I used to do this sort of stuff for a living and its not as easy as you would think. I'd advise getting an iron that will give a high temperature as lead free solder doesn't flow very well. If you can't get a good temp on your iron you'll find it sticks to the board very easily.
Keep us posted how you get on.

Misc · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Karma :

Itchy · Super Spammer Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Karma :

dextersaurus · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 Mar 2009 Karma :

Ahh this thread saves me opening my own one, i need one to fix an xbox...

Good info here Karma

Dunc

owdamer · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Karma :

I dont do any soldering these days, we generally just replace a pcb rather than an single ic. We used to have a contract with 3com to repair hubs/switches & routers which was all component level stuff. We could easily replaced 50 or so ic's in a day. We used 45w weller soldering stations which seemed to work quite well but that was with the old leaded solder. Last time i tried working on anything with the lead free solder it was like the iron had been glued to the board! Horrid stuff.

Itchy. I also have a bobbin of leaded solder. I hid it from the h&s guy when they bought in the unleaded stuff. I dont know anything about the cold soldering. I dont get how that works. looks good though.

https://toolmonger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/weller-digital-soldering-station.jpg

T1z3R · World Chat Champion Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Karma :

i have most of the antex irons supplied by maplin and wouldnt be comfortable using any of them for that job.
get a decent weller if you can afford it and some really small tips.
i bought an aoyue 909 rework station and a collection of tips for this sort of work but i do it quite regular so its paid for itself.
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TomCB · Scooby Slapper Joined: 04 Dec 2008 Karma :

having now seen the video (it wouldnt load before)

if your a novice at soldering, i suggest you do not do it. pay someone who has experience (and i dont mean a few weeks).

they look about as fine as the traces were in a psp, and soldering them together was no easy job (and they were spread out, those in the connector are very close together)
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