Weller soldering iron tips?

Well, it kinda depends on the type of iron you have. Do you have a station??

Yes, generally speaking, certain tips have certain temp characteristics (I guess their size ie: conical, limits the amount of heat that can be transferred to the tip).

A sharp conical tip would work for most SMT re-work, SMT ICs, caps, etc.... It isn't easy, I swear to you!! I usually use a special iron for SMT, with a really small barrel for the pencil.

Also, without it being a soldering station (being temperature controlled), temp won't be very accurate. I have a very good 35W Weller iron that I use for my briefcase (mobile work), and places a station is cumbersome to work with. But the temp is all over the place, bleah.... I prefer a station, the best you can afford. (the pencil being the most important factor in your purchase, after all, you're holding it and you want to be comfortable, otherwise, how will you solder SMT very well without bridging all kinds of joints!!!)

My opinion anyhow, I'll see if I have a chart of all the tips available for every Weller application.

--
Myron Samila
Toronto, ON Canada
Samila Racing
http://204.101.251.229/myronx19

If you have a Weller "WTCPN" station then the tips are temperature controlled, and the single digit is the temperature in degrees F. Having used it I could never go back to a non-controlled temperature iron.

Which temperature and size you use will depend on what your job is.

For soldering surface mount I use a sharp conical tip at either 600 or 700 degrees. For soldering through-hole I use a 700 degree conical or small blade tip -- the conical tip is a bit small for most jobs but it gets down into a forest of leads nicely. For soldering point-to-point wiring in antique radios I have some mondo-big tips (I think they're named Crabb and Goyle).

Can we have soem Fs and Cs here, I thought this guy must be back sodlering at 700c then I realised he was from the wrong side of the Atlantic :)

• The OP mentions F here first

• The reply mentions F here.

Where did you miss the C and Fs (see my * remarks above ;)

--
Myron Samila
Toronto, ON Canada
Samila Racing
http://204.101.251.229/myronx19

700

small

down

and

sodlering

Here

best

Having

700

down

and

I am obliged to say, from an upper hemispere view point, I am from the right side of the Atlantic.

Just when I see in the Cooper website specs in degrees C and F the temperature in Fahrenheit seemed to be consistent with the range of numbers on the bits.

or

gets

in

Crabb

Yea, I should have put "F" everywhere, but the original poster was all in degrees F.

The US will get around to adopting the metric system, probably about the same time the rest of the world goes on some other standard.

is.

600

wiring

:)

It's only a legal adoption anyway, the US will start using C about the same time as the rest of the world's public does. You really are better off sticking to one or the other, I am lumbered with using both ie. hot cold personally, freezing point of water , when will it snow, and all the other things that control life are done by me in F, technical stuff like soldering irons, melting point of aluninium :) degrees C and naturally transistor stuff K.

Damn confusing it is.

I like using 720 deg F (380 deg C) and a Weller ETS tip for small SMT like QFPs. For larger SMT, an ETP tip is nice to have. These tips are for the variable temp soldering stations. For SMT work it is handy to have variable temperature. The fixed temp irons/tips are too hard to use for SMT work. You should also use a tip cleaner such as Multicore's TTC1 (best I have found so far). This cleans off oxide crud and tins all in one motion.

I like the conical tips. I find the screwdriver tips are hard to use for SMT.

Mark

(snip)

I think you need to get out more. The ROW public use C as their daily measure in the vast majority of countries. Europe, ... , even Australia.

I tried a range and settled on 220 C, based on the process temperature ratings on the chips I'm soldering. It's low, but it does the job and I don't have to worry about toasting the chips. (I don't think I could move fast enough at 380 C to not worry, and the hotter you go the faster the flux burns off too.)

Yes. ;-) A conical with a fine screwdriver tip will give great results. The thin long screwdriver tips look cool but have poor heat transfer.

Here's a recent thread on the topic with some Weller tip numbers...

FWIW, I've found it's more the technique than the iron that yields good SMT results. Flux and solder mask are key ingredients. With them, I've seen great SMT results even practicing with a cheapo Weller general-purpose iron & tip from my utility toolkit.

Richard

Isn't 700 C implausibly high? I just assumed for that reason that it was Fahrenheit.

--Mac

Strangely enough, in Canada, we use Metric for just about everything (including temp). BUT, if you are building something, you are going to use a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, or a

2x4 (") stud, ummmmmm...... how many sq/ft is your house?!?!? rarely do you hear someone using Metric in the building trade. Yes, this electrical conduit is 3 meters (ahhhh, no, but cable here is sold in meters)

But, we pretty much use Metric for just about everything else, makes a lot of sense too!!! It is sooooooooo easy to understand compared to inches (conversions is just so easy).

I work on cars as a hobby (I race an Italian car), and just looking at a nut or bolt, I can say "10mm", where when I'm working on an American car, it's like "1/4, 3/8, what the?!?!?" heheh.

I also have a conversion calculator on my PDA that has some "out of date" measurements to convert to, like a furlong, stones, etc... heheh.

The US does use metric though!!!! JPL is using the metric system for their Mars mission, etc...... JBL (a speaker manufacturer) uses metric for just about everything regarding the design of their speakers (voice coil, spider, magnet gap, except the diameter is measured in inches!)

--
Myron Samila
Toronto, ON Canada
Samila Racing
http://204.101.251.229/myronx19

same

measure

(including temp).

plywood, or a

you hear someone

meters (ahhhh, no,

of sense too!!!

just so easy).

nut or bolt, I

3/8, what

measurements to

their Mars mission,

everything regarding

diameter is

In the UK we have a similar theme in the building scene except lengths and measurements are in lumps of 30cm. This measurement was often referred to as a metric foot! So for example you would specify a length of timber as say 2.4m (being the equiv. of 8ft).

Many thanks for the replies. The consensus is towards conical tips and 700 deg F.

I remember a friend used a tip which was concave in shape and hence could carry solder effectively when doing fine work such as PQFPs. It also seemed to aid the removal of solder when an excess had been used and pins were being shorted. I can't find any such shape in the Weller series though the iron he used wasn't from Weller.

I have seen US Army specifications for equipment where the dimensions are given in inches and the maximum weight in kilograms. And the accompanying software had to display distances in kilometers.

that tip is made by Pace, its called a miniwave tip.

Search the c.a.e group for "Metcal hoof tip". There might be another maker too, mentioned in a prior thread with Metcal.

I don't know about that, but solder braid works great, sometimes with a touch of flux.

Weller doesn't have this tip, unfortunately.

Brain glitch - make that s.e.d. ...