conical tip on soldering iron

It's cheap to make.

Broadly speaking, a chisel tip delivers more heat to the joint you're soldering, simply because it has a larger area.

Antex do a vast variety of tips for different uses. The standard one is just that - it should be ok for the most common things.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:gpg3m0$igh$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org:

I like a small conical tip for SMD work,on fine pitch parts.

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Jim Yanik
jyanik

Yes, used the standard tip for many years.

The point asking about is this:

"Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for electrical/electronic work?"

In the not cheap realm ;-) I use a pointy conical tip (actually 1/64" radius, IIRC) on a 60W TC iron for working on SMD boards - with magnification, I can get in there and hit one pin on fine-pitched packages. Still works fine on bigger components if lined up correctly, so it's not a constant need to switch tips. Lots of power is available if needed, but it doesn't cook.

As for the cheapies with no temperature control, I don't have anything good to say about them. Junk is junk.

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Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

I usually prefer my iron that has a chisel tip, because it is thermo-controlled, its handle is more comfortable, and cord is more flexible (so stays out of my way). I use a different iron, that has a conical tip, when space around the joint(s) is limited and the large, unused part of a chisel tip - protruding out into space - could get too close to things I don't want to melt. Sometimes the point of a chisel wants to roll off a joint (DEsoldering operation) and the conical tip provides easier control. Quite a bit of your tip choice depends on preference, but, as another poster pointed out, more tip in contact with the joint can put more heat into it.

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Michael

It has a lot to do with personal preference.

I started out with an Ungar soldering iron from my woodburning set. That was a popular toy when I was 8 years old. One of the heating elements had a very fine pointed tip. The iron ran very hot. It very quickly rounded off the tip. I learned that by carrying a tiny blob of solder that the heat transfer area was determined by the size of that solder ball. With a pointed tip you can lean the iron any way that is convenient. I find the chisel tip very awkward, especially for smt.

If more heat is needed you can lean the tip to gain more surface contact. I am currently(usually) using the cheapest Weller pencil with adjustable heat. It is a bit of over kill because I always run it at max heat. My rule for soldering is prep, get in, get out, clean up.

I have an assortment of soldering irons because there is no such thing as one that will do it all!

BTW, I was 8 years old 61 years ago. John Ferrell W8CCW

I think that to some extent, it's a case of what you get used to. The 'standard' 700 degree bit that most people use on the old Weller TCP Magnastat irons - and bear in mind that for many years these were the workhorse iron of the electronics industry, and are still to be found in many workshops - is conical. I have always found that a conical tip is much better on high density boards, as a flat or chisel tip can easily heat two joints at once if you don't position it carefully. If you are soldering under magnification, as is sometimes required with even fairly 'ordinary' boards, I find that it is easier to see what you are doing, with a small conical tip.

I don't find that I have any problem getting enough heat into joints with this type of tip. If your iron is set for the right temperature for the solder being used, it won't be a problem. If any joint won't flow satisfactorily, then the iron that you're using is either not powerful enough, or a conical tip simply isn't appropriate for that particular type of joint. Those of us professionally involved in bench soldering, usually keep two or even three irons, plus desoldering equipment, at the ready, and just reach for the 'right' one for the job, without thinking about it.

Obviously, there's a lot of generalisations there, and for hobbyist or occasional use, the 'traditional' or standard Antex-style chisel bit, is probably the most versatile general-use type. One downside of conical tips, is that the plating tends to fail fairly quickly, so they don't last as long as chisel tips. We had quite a debate about this on here a few months back, and we all pretty much agreed that the conical Weller TCP tips used to last a lot longer than they do now. One interesting document came up in that debate, which explained about the dreaded lead-free solder leaching iron from the tip plating and accelerating wear which, when coupled with the more aggressive fluxes used in this stuff, leads to much shorter tip life.

Arfa

Fine work where the standard tip is too wide. I use one far more than the standard Antex one. And that's with normal rather than SM components.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW

john wrote in news:Xns9BCE6F0D54C35451E7A@news-

3.octanews.net:

They're awesome for DIY surface mount parts. A bright light, a conical tip and a temperature controlled iron do wonders, especially if you can get

0.27mm thick solder. What looks impossible becomes almost easy.

For what it's worth, some years back I tried a Weller TCP (Magnastat) iron. I never looked at an Antex again. The TCP iron cost more, but I still have it

10 years later and although I can get spares for it I haven't had to yet. I used to have to replace Antex irons far too often, it's a false economy. Their elements are way too fragile.

iron. I

it

I

Ditto, recommend magnastat, and conical tips. I rarely need to use very fine solder, and when I do, I flatten some 1 mm solder in a "set of rolls" and then slice the flattened solder with a razor blade for an odd inch or so of 1/3mm or so solder.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I get on average about 5 years out of my Antex elements. But I've used XSD units on my home made solder station. Other types might be worse. I like Antex because for me it's by far the most comfortable design to operate. Anything else I try seems clunky by comparison.

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*A plateau is a high form of flattery*

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW

I've got a home made dispenser with five rolls of the common sizes. And two reels of each in stock for when they run out. Bought when I thought leaded might become unavailable. ;-)

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW

You can find nice steel rollers, bearings and brackets in old office copiers. They are usually gear driven, along with all the rubber rollers in the paper path. the AC motor used to feed the paper should be heavy enough for your oats, and the tension is adjustable by backing off the tension on the pair of springs.

Some are small diameter, but the larger, higher speed copiers tend to be larger. I have a couple old copiers to scrap, to build a wire stripper for scrap copper electrical wire. A guard with different size holes will be put over the feed side, and the wire with the crushed insulation will come out the other side. Another shaft will have a pair of hooked pins to wrap the scrap insulation around, to separate it in one pass. When the hooks are full, you slip a big knife between them and cut it (over the trash can).

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Goggle Groups, and Web TV users must request to be white listed, or I

What is a "set of rolls" (denizen of the U.S. FWIW)? I need to find a sort of small mangle (compressed hardened rollers) to "de-husk" raw oats a little at a time. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Michael

mm

razor

little

For my translator file

What are "set of rolls" called in USA ? A proper engineering set pic here minus handle it seems

I recently bought one of these , not for pasta,

but for the 2 sets of intermeshed roller "guillotine" cutters for cutting bicycle and motor bike inner-tube down to neat strips for rubber drive band making (then standard "bean slicing" to cut them down narrower). 2mm ones at top of pic ( although 4mm for cutting rubber for some odd reason) and 6.5mm below. You can only neatly bean slice once you have neat parallel sided strips of rubber

I've not tried the plain rolls section of the pasta m/c but it is all metal construction and a neat hidden innternal mechanism, I've not thought how it works, for varying the gap in 10 lock-down steps and still allow contra-rotation of the steel rolls. Overall quite heavy , beefier than needed for pasta anyway. For thick rubber use the make/break joint between the 2 main sections, is too weak. You have to swap the handle between sections, and for this use mount the slicing section in a vice or something. If I can find something like oats I will try it.

Otherwise for solder (tighter sub-mm gap) this is my set of homemade set of rolls on my tips file

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

mm

razor

little

No cereals, pulses or dried beans , so tried some dried cloves which is probably more of a test. 5 crushed cloves and 5 whole for comparison. Required stepped repeated crushing , at setting 9,6,3 and then 1 but oats would probably go through in one.

Over engineered for damp pasta.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I used to have a room full of midrange Xerox copiers but alas they are long gone; a local business had a similar room until the fire marshall ordered a cleaning and they too are now gone. I still have one big Sharp copier that uses a pink "master" which may have goodies, but I don't remember seeing paired steel rollers under tension. What brand and model copier are you using for this?

Please post a link to pics of this when it is ready.

Michael

Hmm, I assume that you installed the flat rollers in that pasta mill and if so, that is promising. There was a similar pasta mill at one of our local Goodwill stores (second-hand donated stuff) but it only had a helical ridged roller set and the gap was not adjustable and was too wide for the oats to be crushed (rolled, as they say).

What did your pasta machine cost you and did you purchase it locally or online?

Michael