This Hobby Is Actually Useful!

[Jon Elson]

On 08/02/2015 10:51 AM, Jochen Kunz wrote:
> Am 01.08.15 um 23:24 schrieb Robert Jarratt:
>> PS A related question. I struggled somewhat with the Weller Magnastat No. 8
>> tip, when trying to solder leads to the ground plane, I could not get the
>> solder to stay molten very long.
> Wellers are notorious for this. I had to use various Weller irons at
> occasion. They all suffered from the same problem: To high thermal
> resistance between heater and tip. It is a pain to (de)solder to a
> ground plane, as the heat can't flow from the heater to the tip fast
> enough. I consider Wellers unusable for this reason.
>
>
Thia may well be true with some old Weller designs.  I 
thought the EC1302 and related irons were really well-designed,
but they are now obsolete.  The tip had a hole drilled up 
the back where a temperature sensor fit, and the heater 
surrounded the OD of the tip.  The problem with them is if 
you let the plating break down, the solder amalgamates with 
the copper core of the tip and swells it, and then you can't 
remove it from the heater.  That's a $60 repair part!

The Weller WMP is 65 Watts, and has a hollow tip that the 
heater-sensor pokes up into.  These seem to work well, and 
the larger sized tips have no shortage of thermal conductivity.

(The above are not stand-alone irons, but need an 
electronically-controlled station.)

Jon