Electronics > Beginners

A variable temperature soldering iron that's always set to 350?

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pussyfoot:
I watched the videos about soldering and it's strongly suggested to get a good variable temperature soldering iron. However, the temps in the examples seem to always be around 350 degrees Celsius.  What's the point then?

mariush:
The tip temperature drops a bit as soon as you touch the leads or copper surface of the material that's soldered. So the temperature of your tip needs to take in consideration how fast the surface "sucks" the heat from the tip cooling it down.

When you solder some things, you only need a bit above the solder temperature (example soldering a capacitor lead on a tiny through hole pad where 250c may be fine), on other things you may need a much higher temperature, for example when soldering a thick wire on a banana plug or something like that, where you might need 450c.

So why not use 450c all the time? That can be too much for tiny traces, burning them or ungluing them from the board, and the tip also oxidizes much faster as temperature increases... you would have to constantly shock it and clean it from oxides were you to use it at that setting.

350c is just a good compromise value, which assures you pretty much can solder anything in a reasonable amount of time and that's what matters for tutorials.

digsys:
Most people will likely use their Soldering Irons at a particular temperature most the time. It may be a bit too "high" or "low" for
some jobs, but once you get the hang of it, you automatically work out changing the time you spend on a joint. For SMALL temp
changes, it's quicker than fiddling with the adj pot / buttons. BUT -
When you start going from tiny S/Mount to large caps, connectors etc, and changing tips / solder type etc, THAT'S when you'll
appreciate having larger temp control. ie Try going from Silver solder on a large connector to S/M paste on a 0805 - it'll become clear :-)

mrflibble:

--- Quote from: mariush on March 25, 2013, 10:01:09 pm ---350c is just a good compromise value, which assures you pretty much can solder anything in a reasonable amount of time and that's what matters for tutorials.

--- End quote ---

Pretty much this... Good compromise value. And for those super big components or random other things with large heat capacity you crank up the temperature to say 425 C.

And just for the fun of it I just checked, last time I used it my iron was set to 375 C for a regular not-too-small-not-too-big soldering job. So there's an anecdotal data point for you. ;)

cyr:
It depends a lot on how good regulation the iron has as well, I usually stay at 340C or so for everything from tiny SMD parts to large battery connectors. Have the right tip for good contact is key though, and of course having the right temperature for the type of solder and flux.

I think the most important reason to get a "proper" variable temperature soldering station isn't so much the variable part, but that it's actually temperature controlled and stays more or less at the value you have selected. What you absolutely don't want is one of those unregulated irons you just plug into the wall. It might go up to 500C if untouched for a while, and drop to 200C when you try to do large joints.

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