Need a new soldering iron

[John Bateson]

Its been quite a while since I bought a soldering iron but the two I have a quite old now and the Weller that use for the heavy stuff must be 40 years old with the cable beginning to crack...
The other one is controllable but is showing its age!

I find the market confusing but ideally I would like one where the tip is temperature controlled so I can do low temperature things as well as some heavy stuff such as laminating layers.
Ideally a readout would be good so I know better what the iron is up to rather than suck it and see.

Anybody got a good recommendation for a current iron preferably under £100 if possible.

John

[allanferguson]

I have used one of these
http://www.maplin.co.uk/48w-lcd-display ... tion-98133
for a couple of years, and find it excellent. Spare irons for £9.95, so I keep one iron for low temp solder to save changing bits. I'm tempted to get another solder station to save changing temperatures!

I modified mine by fitting a neon indicator light in the top, as I kept leaving it on overnight (usual health warnings apply!)

Other retailers are available..........

Also, and you may know all about this, I wouldn't be without my bit cleaner from C & L -- like a pot scourer but made from brass. A wonderful tool!

Allan F

[grovenor-2685]

I also use a Maplins one, http://www.maplin.co.uk/search?criteria=n34FB which seems to be just a different box, uses the same irons as Allan's.
Keith

[David Thorpe]

For the last three years or so I've been using an Aoyue 937+ and so far it's given me faultless service. There's a wide range of reasonably priced tips available and they're easy to swap over. It's available at http://www.pcb-soldering.co.uk/soldering-irons.html

Aoyue is much better known in the USA than over here - you can read some reviews of the 937+ at http://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-937-Digital ... B000I30QBW

DT

[Jol Wilkinson]

I have had an Antex 50W TCU for over twenty years and have been very satisfied with it. The current version of my one is the 690SD http://www.antex.co.uk/product.asp?strP ... 5&P_ID=893

The TCU's that Hobby Holidays sell also look very good http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/products.php?cat=39, but both they and the Antex are considerably more expensive than the Maplin ones.

Jol

[Jol Wilkinson]

John,

a couple of further points.

My Antex has a silicon cable that is very flexible and makes the iron much easier to handle than my "standard" 25 watt Antex with PVC cable. That's something I would certainly look out for.

The range of bits available with the Antex is quite wide and gives options for most applications, again something I would look out for.

Jol

[John McAleely]

In my experience the Maplin brand is a bit of a lottery. I bought this a couple of years ago, and it was dead within months (of occasional weekend usage).

I replaced it with an Antex 660 TC.

[John Bateson]

Thanks for all the responses - one dilemma resolved now another to tackle.

One of the down sides of getting a better iron is that they cost a lot more but still only have a 1 year warranty. A couple of years ago the Lady Downstairs bought an iron (of the type used for ironing shirts etc) and decided to get one with lots of bells and whistles. Beautiful until it it broke at 13 months and no amount of pressure of the sellers would make them budge from "tough" - they were insisting on getting a certified electrician to prove there was a manufacturing fault - and no way were they going to pay for that.
So the plan is (for the Lady Downstairs anyway) to buy steam irons costing less than £20. If they break in the first year she will get another one free under warranty, but in the meantime she can go through 4 of the cheap ones for less than the cost of the expensive one and get at least 4 times the life of the expensive model assuming all the cheap ones break in the second year, which from long experience they will not, since her original, cheap iron lasted nearly 20 years.

I feel I have a similar problem with a new soldering iron...


John

[Will L]

John

I've had my Antex 550TC "soldering station" for some years now, after a series of adjustable temperature irons rather than the soldering station variety. I am very happy with the soldering station, but it was, and is, rather expensive and it did go wrong on me, but in so doing it lead me to a better place. When one of these goes wrong, it seems it is generally the element that is inclined to go rather than anything in the box. Unlike your fancy cloths iron, the element is replaceable. At the time I wasn't sure I could successfully replace the element in the soldering iron hand set (so to speak) so I brought both a new element and complete new handset. It turns out that replacing the element wasn't beyond me so I now have two handsets. I therefore keep a large bit on one and a small bit on the other, saving the faff of changing a hot bits to suit the job in hand, and also avoiding the process most likely to damage the element, that is repeatedly changing the bit. So when you do get one, of what ever model, I'd say the extra handset was a good investment.

Looking at the various sets linked to in this thread, I would suggest that they are intended mostly for use on electronics and as a result have small bits suited to soldering electronic components. Do make sure you can get a big meaty bit with the stored heat capacity to enable you to tackle joints in big bits of metal.

Wil

[David Thorpe]

When I got my Aoyue, it was supplied with a fine conical tip which in fact I use quite often, though as Will says that tip is probably more suited to electrical work. However, I did take the precuation of ordering three additional tips when i ordered the iron - there is quite a decent range - see http://www.pcb-soldering.co.uk/solderin ... -type.html - and I haven't really felt the need of anything heftier, always taking into account that this is only a 35W iron.

As supplied, it comes with a spare heating element though I haven't yet had to use it.

DT

[Paul Willis]

John

I've had my Antex 550TC "soldering station" for some years now, after a series of adjustable temperature irons rather than the soldering station variety. I am very happy with the soldering station, but it was, and is, rather expensive and it did go wrong on me, but in so doing it lead me to a better place. When one of these goes wrong, it seems it is generally the element that is inclined to go rather than anything in the box. Unlike your fancy cloths iron, the element is replaceable. At the time I wasn't sure I could successfully replace the element in the soldering iron hand set (so to speak) so I brought both a new element and complete new handset.

I've also had a 550TC for a number of years, and yes, after about five years use the element did fail on the iron.

As Will says, these are replaceable in the iron, and the iron itself is unpluggable from the soldering station.

In my case, i was all prepared to buy a new element to replace the failed one when a bit of diligent searching on the web foung that I could get an entire new Antex iron for LESS than the price of a replacement element...

So I did that instead. I think that I junked the old iron - perhaps I should have kept it and tried to get a cheaper element instead :-/

HTH makes your decision,
Flymo

[Paul Willis]

Anybody got a good recommendation for a current iron preferably under £100 if possible.
John

Following up my previous post (I was intrigued and did a bit of googling...) this seems to be the best priced Antex available.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Equipm ... tion-30346

Just the price of a cheap bottle of wine (a bit more than the price of a pint!) over your budget.

They seem to have been rebranded from 550TC to 660TC. Whether that means that you now get a go-faster stripe as well, I don't know

Replacement irons seem about 26 quid, so I might even get a spare one myself!

Flymo

[Jol Wilkinson]

Take care with websites like Rapid, Farnell, etc. as they often quote the price without the VAT. The Rapid price is however good for the Antex, I've seen them advertised for £200. Squires have them at a similar price to Rapid, while Eileen's price is somewhat higher.

Jol

[Philip Hall]

I've used an Antex 660TC for years. I also use a standard 18W iron with a a fine bit on it for detail work; this runs a bit hotter than the temperature I set the solder station to (about 380 degrees, I think, against the 275 - 280 of the station). I chose the Antex after checking with them that using home made pure copper bits would work OK, as I intended to have them made a little bit longer than the supplied ones to allow for corrosion. They were very helpful and I've not regretted the purchase. Mine came from Squires who had a very good price at the time.

Philip

[Terry Bendall]

the Weller that use for the heavy stuff must be 40 years old with the cable beginning to crack...

For those of a fugal nature, if the only thing that is wrong with the iron is the cable then just fit a new cable. Obviously you need to know what you are doing, but really no more difficult than fitting a plug to the other end of the cable. Of course you normally need a soldering iron to do the job which is a problem if you only have one.

I would like one where the tip is temperature controlled

A fairly simple way of controlling temperature is to get hold of a domestic dimmer switch and wire this up to a standard 13 amp socket and a short piece of lead with a plug. Again, you need to know what you are doing, but not that difficult. Of course if you are not sure, then either find someone who is, or don't try it in the first place. My 25 watt iron will successfully solder white metal this arrangement and using low melt solder. Not as clever as some of the fancy variable irons that are about but it does the job.

Terry Bendall

[grovenor-2685]

Taking John's own advice, this is worth a read:
http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/Docs/Solder%20Tutorial%20-%20Part%201%20-%20Choosing%20Your%20Iron.pdf
Keith

[Mike Garwood]

At Christmas I ordered the Aoyue 937 and a load of different tips. What a disappointment, my ordinary XS25 watt Antex was way better! If you see it on ebay leave it alone!!

So I've just ordered myself a 660TC from Rapid for £88... bargin!

Mike

[David Thorpe]

Oh dear, that's what I've got and am very happy with whileas I can't get on with my 25W Antex at all! It's a funny old world.... As the feedback on Amazon.com shows, most people are happy with their 937s (or, to be more accurate, 937+s), so you may have got a duff one, in which case it is still under guarantee so presumably could be returned. However, if you want to get rid of your presumably surplus-to-requirement Aoyue tips, please PM me.

DT

[Mike Garwood]

DT
Well, I treated the tips with tip cleaner, but they still refuse to take solder, they dirty over within seconds of being cleaned and the iron seems to run out of 'puff' when it's used. This is a shame as the shape tip I'm using is the best I have ever used, a small screw driver shape, brilliant for seaming.
Each to their own but frankly I could not stand not being able to get the iron to pick up the solder!

The bad news now is I have to break it to my wife I've just spent more money, still I did buy her a new car yesterday so I should be ok for brownie points for a while.

Mike

[Alan Turner]

I had the same problem with my Antex 25 when I had to change the element.

I tracked it down to the tip getting too hot. If you use a dimmer controller, or similar, with the iron and cool the tip down a bit you will find that it will be OK.

Alan

[HowardGWR]

Mike, I am sorry you have had bad results but I hope you have not thrown it away. Surely all you need to do is keep it tinned. They are all the same, once you have that nice shiny tin on the tip it works fine, or am I wrong here?

[John McAleely]

Having been very happy with my Antex 660 TC (purchased one year ago), I got it home from a CHEAG workshop at the weekend to find it didn't work any more.

Unlike the maplins unit that died on me, the Antex was at least screwed together, so I opened it up, revealing:

Antex2.jpg

It appeared one of the mains leads had worked its way loose. It was easy enough to reconnect, but what gave me pause was the evidence of other connections having been on the transformer at some point (on the middle connectors). One, I wasn't 100% sure I was restoring the right connection, and two, what was the history of this new unit?

Having said that, this was a user repairable object, which would seem to bode well for its long term reliability.

[Terry Bendall]

The answer John is that the lead that looks like it has come off (the one on the left) should go to the terminal marked 0/N. If the mains supply cable has the standard UK colour code, the wire will be blue which denotes the neutral or 0 volts wire. There is probably a piece of black sleeving over the wire to cover the solder tag after the joint has been made. The 110 marking by the centre terminal stands for 110 volts which is the usual supply voltage in some other countries, including the USA. The 230 marking by the right hand terminal stands for 230 volts which is the nominal supply voltage in the UK. The brown wire in the lead should go to this terminal. The unit is probably made for world wide use so the transformer is designed so that it can be used on a 110 volt or 230 volt input supply.

Of course you need another soldering iron to re-make the joint which might be a problem. The usual warning applies that anyone who is not sure of what to do should get advice from someone who does, since the input to the transformer is at mains voltage and you might get a shock if you get it wrong.

As with other things, not too difficult once you know how.

Terry Bendall

[Paul Willis]

It appeared one of the mains leads had worked its way loose. It was easy enough to reconnect, but what gave me pause was the evidence of other connections having been on the transformer at some point (on the middle connectors). One, I wasn't 100% sure I was restoring the right connection, and two, what was the history of this new unit?

Hi John,

I'd have thought that with all the time that you've spent Stateside, you'd have worked out the answer...

Look at the top right, and it says "110 230". So the same transformer must be used in the US where they have wimpy low voltage mains, rather than our manly European 230/240 volts (I would have checked a couple of weeks ago when I last accidentally electrocuted myself, but I was too busy swearing at the time).

It's presumably easier (and cheaper) for the manufacturer to make one type of coil, tapped off in two different places, than to make two different coils and risk having excessive stock levels, obsolescence, etc.

I can't explain why the other terminals look used (and I'm not taking mine apart in idle curiosity to find out) although it may be that they were used and removed for quality control testing during the manufacturing process.

I hate different standards of electricity... I'm off to Singapore next week (thankfully not missing CHEAG on the first Thursday of April) and I don't have a clue what type of plug I need to power a laptop on the plane :-/ The last time I flew to the States, I had three different types on me, and the blasted US carrier used its own bespoke one! You can't win...

Flymo

[Tim V]

There are two terminals on the left, and it looks like (to me) the second one from the left (that is broken off) is the one to use.

That transformer doesn't look second user to me, they all look like that on the terminals.