Soldering iron questions

I am looking at the Weller soldering stations and was wondering if someone could answer some questions for me. First, other than the higher wattage, why would I want a WD1000 over a WESD51? Does any one know the difference between the WESD51 and WESD51D? They look like the same thing to me. Finally, is there a reason I might want the WD1001 with the 65 watt pencil, over the WD1000 with the 80 watt pencil?

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Chris W
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Chris W
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You really need to specify what you will be soldering with this tool. Larger items require higher wattage.

Jack

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Jack Hayes

I am already aware of the wattage differences and since these are all temperature controlled units I don't see any reason why I couldn't use a higher wattage iron than I needed for the task at hand, as long as the tip was small enough. As for what I am going be doing, mostly through hole circuit boards with some surface mount. Every now and then I do solder UHF coax connectors on, but I don't think even the 80 watt is large enough for that, so I will probably use something else.

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Chris W
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Chris W

IIUC the WESD51D is the 240 volot variant of the WESD51. The WESD model is simply the digital readout version of the WES.

Looking at the difference between the WMP iron, supplied with the WD1001 and the WSP80 iron, supplied with the WD1000 - the former looks a lot smaller and lighter. Ideal for very fine, precise work. The latter looks more suitable for a production environment, where the users may be less gentle with their tools.

The difference in the prices of tips is quite something!

So, yes, me, I would rather have the WD1001. 65 watts is more than enough for the sort of work that I do and the iron looks just my sort of thing.

However, dream on, I could never justify that sort of expense. My 24v ac Wellers do me well. I keep two on the bench - one with a fine round tip and the other with a cylindrical BIG tip.. Although, sometimes, I use both at the same time..one in each hand.

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Sue
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After a second look, sure enough the spec sheet does say that, I must be going blind :)

Sounds like I would want the smaller one then I didn't really pay attention to the size of the tips before. So now the question I have left is why would I want a WD1001 over the WESD51? Other than it's higher wattage output and the fact that it just looks cool to me, is there anything it does that the the WESD51 doesn't.

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Chris W
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Chris W

Just look at the difference in the irons. ISTM that they are designed for very different working environments.

One is a very specialised iron, one a much more general purpose iron. It is a bit like comparing a box cutter with a scalpel - both do the same job but you get far more precise control with one of them.

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Sue
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The higher wattage unit will probably offer faster recovery times, which becomes important as the thermal mass of the tip decreases. For example, which you solder a pad, the tip cools somewhat and the higher the wattage the faster the preset tip temperature is restored. Probably of more importance for production line work, but depending on what you're soldering, that could be important. With enough wattage, even a small, fine thermal mass tip can act like a heavier, clumsier tip.

Chuck

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chuck

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