Can anyone recommend a basic soldering iron kit? I need something small and basic for making my own drop down power sections for fast track on my layout. I’ve tried using crimped wires that attach to the tabs but that hasn’t been very reliable.
thanks
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Peter Frenzel 010119 posted:Can anyone recommend a basic soldering iron kit? I need something small and basic for making my own drop down power sections for fast track on my layout. I’ve tried using crimped wires that attach to the tabs but that hasn’t been very reliable.
thanks
American Beauty are the best.
I've soldered dozens of 14 ga feeders to my fastrack tabs using a Weller 25W iron.
https://www.amazon.com/Weller-...g-Iron/dp/B0009ZD2AG
Theres a newer one withe a fancier grip:
If you have any Milwaukee 12v tools or are thinking of purchasing. They have a 12v battery powered iron. I’ve soldered 12 gauge wires easily with it, wire connections to track in a matter of seconds, as well as brass stock. I have a couple of Wellers and a butane powered one. I believe this iron out performs anything I have ever used. The best feature other than it works very well. No cord to drag around. Especially for under the layout work. The only drawback. Is the battery life. You will get about a half hour if you leave it on. I bought this for working on the layout. I work on school busses for a living. I liked it enough to buy another for work.
Make sure the soldering iron you buy is TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED. Those are the key words.
I use a Weller 8200 soldering gun for everyday soldering. For fine work, I have an old Ungar pencil iron I inherited from my father nearly 40 years ago...
Mitch
Hot Water posted:American Beauty are the best.
Mr. Hot Water, with your American Beauty soldering iron, do you use the Pencil or the Stick style?
I use a Weller 100/140W gun for track work, and the Hakko FX888D soldering station for bench work.
Like GRJ, OGR's Jim Barrett endorsed the Weller 100/140 gun:
"The Soldering Gun
The best tool an O gauge railroader
can have for wiring work is a Weller model
8200 dual range 100/140-watt soldering
gun (Photo 2)." (The cost at the time of this
writing was around $30 or so.) This soldering
gun, when properly maintained, makes
short work of soldering wires to each other
as well as to the track. Quick heating and
cooling are among its most desirable characteristics,
making it invaluable for doing
repetitious short soldering jobs on a layout.
(From OGR Run 263, p. 85)
I also own a Weller soldering iron, but I do not recall the model number.
While it is elderly, it is in excellent condition.
It is a large black gun, with two incandescent lights on either side the heating element.
The heating element is like a bent 16d nail and has the output a Nuclear power plant.
It is so large, heavy, unwieldy and way to hot for any ordinary soldering, I never use it for anything.
Maybe if I needed fuse to stick of rail together, I might consider it.
Bryan Smith posted:Hot Water posted:American Beauty are the best.
Mr. Hot Water, with your American Beauty soldering iron, do you use the Pencil or the Stick style?
Both of mine have the small, flat "chisel" tip.
Bryan Smith posted:I also own a Weller soldering iron, but I do not recall the model number.
While it is elderly, it is in excellent condition.
It is a large black gun, with two incandescent lights on either side the heating element.
The heating element is like a bent 16d nail and has the output a Nuclear power plant.
It is so large, heavy, unwieldy and way to hot for any ordinary soldering, I never use it for anything.
Maybe if I needed fuse to stick of rail together, I might consider it.
Pretty sure that's the really high heat model, I found that to be too much for most model train work. It probably would work for doing brass models. 
The 100/140 Weller works really well for track work and soldering heavy wire. Obviously, I don't grab it for working on locomotives and rolling stock, wrong tool for the job.
RickO posted:I've soldered dozens of 14 ga feeders to my fastrack tabs using a Weller 25W iron.
https://www.amazon.com/Weller-...g-Iron/dp/B0009ZD2AG
Theres a newer one withe a fancier grip:
Agreed. I use a similar but el-cheapo 30W version acquired from Harbor Freight Tools, and that does a great job for me.
I might add that using the proper-sized soldering iron for the job is half the battle. Knowing HOW to solder is the other half. A lot of my fellow club members claim they know how to solder, and own fancy, expensive soldering iron outfits to prove it. But after seeing some of their work, it's fairly apparent they know how to dribble blobs of melted solder on a cold joint anyway. 
Mixed Freight posted:A lot of my fellow club members claim they know how to solder, and own fancy, expensive soldering iron outfits to prove it. But after seeing some of their work, it's fairly apparent they know how to dribble blobs of melted solder on a cold joint anyway.
Some of us with fancy soldering equipment actually know how to use it. Next time you solder up a PCB with all surface mount components and have it work, let me know. 
I just picked this up at HD. My pencil iron is about 40 years old (Radio Shack), still works but it's time for an upgrade.
5-40 W adjustable with a couple different tips. Been wanting one with a stand for a long time. Laying the hot iron on the edge of the bench or layout is a disaster waiting to happen.
I recently purchased an Iso-tip (model 7700) cordless soldering iron. I haven't used it extensively (yet) but the cordless feature is really worthwhile (and the main reason I upgraded from my old, vintage Radio Shack iron). The other nice thing about the Iso-tip is that it heats up with the push of a button (takes about 10 sec), so its not on all the time, just when you need to use it. It also has a small light (interestingly, not an LED) very similar to the old Weller gun.
For a lot of my work, I need real temperature control, many semiconductor products have specific soldering temperatures and heat duration specifications, that's why I use the Hakko soldering station. I've found that stuff like flickering LED's will croak very quickly with excessive heat, so I try to give them just enough heat to solder them. When you're soldering them flush to a PCB, adding a heatsink ain't gonna' happen, so you just have to try to minimize how hot they get. Many SMT parts specify 260C for 10 seconds for soldering. An uncontrolled iron can easily hit 500-550C, it's eye opening how hot they can get until they're actual in contact with a work piece.
I have the same as RJSB18, on sale on Amazon for $32.83; works great for my modest soldering of PCB roll your own boards for LED lighting and PW Lionel stuff:
I bought this one in January. BAYKA 60W 110-120V Soldering Iron, 482-896℉（250-480℃） Accurate Adjustable Temperature Soldering Iron with ON/OFF Switch, LCD Display, Auto-Sleep Setting, 5 Soldering Iron Tips, Stand
It has been awesome! I paid $30. Unfortunately, it looks like it is out of stock now. It may have been made in China...
George
gunrunnerjohn posted:An uncontrolled iron can easily hit 500-550C, it's eye opening how hot they can get until they're actual in contact with a work piece.
I still have a scar on the back of my hand where I somehow came in contact with the tip of my old iron. The new one I bought heats up very quickly and will go to sleep if it sits.
George
My current bench unit is a ZD-929C I picked up at MPAJ.com and has worked pretty well over the years for me. Like others here I also have my dads old Weller 100/140W for the heavier stuff.
I was looking for a more portable iron that still had some balls to do some work around and under the layout and to help out with some projects around the house/garage. I came across a TS100 iron while searching videos on youtube. Being that I'm a gadget/gizmo and all around tool lover/addict I bought one. It can be powered with a 12 to 24V supply. I currently use an old Dell laptop power supply and/or one of my Ryobi tool batteries (had to buy an adapter for that). I purchased a package deal with several tips and an XT-60 adapter one can use with an RC battery. With my Ryobi battery it hits 550F in 12 seconds. It has a bunch of user friendly settings and upgradable firmware. I've only had it a week but so far I'm pretty pleased with it.
One thing about soldering iron temperatures. They're not very accurate unless they're calibrated. The reason the Hakko is widely used in industry is it can be field calibrated easily. About once a month I take out my Hakko FG-100 and check the calibration of the iron. It's not uncommon to find it's drifted 15-20 degrees off the indicated value. Push a few buttons and it's back in cal.
My "go to" is a Hakko FX-601 with further control from a Dremel Model 219 Solid State Speed Control. However, the proper tool for the proper job and if I needed to do fine detail work I would go in a different direction such as a good resistance soldering system.
gunrunnerjohn posted:I use a Weller 100/140W gun for track work, and the Hakko FX888D soldering station for bench work.
I already have the Hakko FX888D soldering station, which came highly recommended here and elsewhere, but I want to add the Weller gun for track work. But the 8200 model seems to be hard to find. The 9400 model seems to have supplanted it. Should I jump to get this version?
I'm not a big fan of the Weller 9400, the set screws don't do nearly as good a job as the old 8200 nuts, they work much better. I'd look for a used 8200 before I'd buy the 9400. There's one right now on eBay setting at $12 with ten hours to go, search for "Weller 8200". Looking at that search, there are a bunch of them on the bay, that would be my play.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Mixed Freight posted:A lot of my fellow club members claim they know how to solder, and own fancy, expensive soldering iron outfits to prove it. But after seeing some of their work, it's fairly apparent they know how to dribble blobs of melted solder on a cold joint anyway.
Some of us with fancy soldering equipment actually know how to use it.
Agreed. Most guys with advanced soldering equipment actually do know how to use it. It's just a couple of guys in our club that have fancy soldering equipment, but still don't really know how to make a good solder joint.
Well, I guess that makes sense, I see people driving really expensive sports cars that have no idea how to drive as well. 
Pingman posted:I have the same as RJSB18, on sale on Amazon for $32.83; works great for my modest soldering of PCB roll your own boards for LED lighting and PW Lionel stuff:
Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station
Looks like I am going to have to invest in a new soldering iron. That looks like a nice setup.
As for me, I learned to solder courtesy of the US Navy, where I was an Electronics Technician (ET-2) in the 1980s. My training certainly has helped me to tune-up prewar Flyer motors, as I know what a good solder joint should look like.
NWL
The OGR forum is fantastic. My wife fell in love with an N guage train set so I have been helping her set it up. I was thinking about what type soldering station I should get and wouldn't you know it was one of the topics the other day. I took Gunrunnerjohn's suggestion and bought the Hakko FX888D soldering station. It is awesome. Thanks for the great advice.
I think you'll appreciate it every time you use it. Tools you use often should be quality tools.
Newbies like me often need mid-level or better quality tools for safety, but some buy cheap tools thinking they will upgrade if they use the cheap tools a lot. Then they do not like or learn how to use the cheap tools and drop their use. I just bought the Weller WLC-100 and plan to learn to solder, thanks to this forum.
My dad was a truck driver, so of course I wanted to drive trucks when I grew up. I asked him how long it takes to learn how to drive a truck, and he laughed and said he knows guys who have been driving for years and still do not know how.
gunrunnerjohn posted:I think you'll appreciate it every time you use it. Tools you use often should be quality tools.
Truth. I hated soldering prior to my first pre fx888 hakko. Lost it in a house fire and have the fx888d now. I learned a lot using that original hakko and it became a pleasure and something I actually enjoy.
My biggest obstacle learning was too cool a pen.
Hot and fast is how I weld, and welding improved my soldering instantly.
I use under 50w for deep board work. Pin outs and thick legs or larger I might use a 200-260 gun or old Weller 100 crude dial adjustable; "halfway to fancy".
Most everything gets the gun
Adriatic posted:My biggest obstacle learning was too cool a pen.
Hot and fast is how I weld, and welding improved my soldering instantly.
I use under 50w for deep board work. Pin outs and thick legs or larger I might use a 200-260 gun or old Weller 100 crude dial adjustable; "halfway to fancy".
Most everything gets the gun
If you're working with heat sensitive components, hot is very bad, even if you're fast! It's not the wattage of the iron, but rather the tip temperature that is all important in PCB work. My Hakko is a 70 watt iron, but the tip is accurately temperature controlled. So, I can set it to the proper temperature for small components and it will keep the correct temperature.
This isn't all that critical for thru-hole PCB work, but when you get to soldering very small SMT parts, it's a whole lot more important!
As was said above, for general wire soldering, and partcularly wire to track soldering, my go-to is the Weller 100-140 watt gun. Can't beat it. Mine cost about 7 bucks back in the 60's. It's a great testament to product longevity that you can still buy replacement tips for these most anywhere, including HD.
For pcb and fine component soldering there are lots of choices, but I love my Hakko 928 two iron station. And my travelling Circuit Specialists 70 watt unit works great too.
I dont do much, if any, smt soldering, but I am sure grj's comments about that are right on!
Rod
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