I am just starting to play with a rework station that has both an iron and a hot air handle. I am starting with basic 60/40 solder and need a starting point for the temperatures to set. Should I use the same temps for the iron as the air? Where should I start for mounting, removing or repairing both thru-hole and SMD devices?
Thanks
Try melting some solder with it.
I can figure out where solder melts, but there is a tradeoff. Just barely hot enough to melt the solder will expose the component to heat for a longer time.
For the iron, I find 700 to be about right most of the time. I occasionally go to 750, or even 800 for hard to solder things that can take the heat. Cooler than 700 can be useful on fragile things like plated ceramic. Andy Cuffe
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Andy Cuffe wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
700 degrees with many solder compositions will burn away the flux/rosin before it gets a chance to wet/clean the joint. I keep my irons @ around 550 to 570 depending on solder type.There's a great writeup on recommended solder temps out on the web... I just can't recall if it is on the Kester web site or somewhere buried in a MIL-STD/HDBK doc :(
I've done a lot of soldering. Use as much heat as you can for as short a time as you can. More people screwup with too cold an iron than with too hot a one.
Rich-
Things may have changed, but tin-lead solder used to be bad for surface mount components. It seems that the silver that was fired onto the component's surface, would almalgamate with lead, causing loss of electrical contact with the surface.
I'd follow Wakarusa's suggestion to check out the Kester web site. Perhaps there would be related info at the Cooper/Weller web site as well.
Fred
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