Soldering temperature question

[Shock]

The look on your face when you discover the station is displaying Celsius temp and you thought you were reading Fahrenheit will be priceless.

SMC component soldering is done at 185C , Through hole is around 250C. I don't need any more than that . Heavier gauge wire I have to go higher for sure .Very rarely do I need to go higher than 350C and that for 14 gauge solid wire. I can tell the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit since I have to use both all the time.

I checked the specs and it indicates the minimum temp of the station is 200C. So you solder at 2C above the melting point of 183C? Not that I don't believe you, but I think the actual tip temp is higher than you think it is.

[luke9511]

i do all of my soldering at 375c

[mcovington]

I think a lot depends on the kind of solder -- you are not only melting the solder, you're also activating the flux, and some fluxes surely require more heat than others.

I will underscore someone else's remark that the temperature reading on the controller may be off by as much as 50 C.

And also someone else's observation that it's easier to overheat components with an iron that is a little too cool than one that is a little too hot.

[Jwillis]

I checked the specs and it indicates the minimum temp of the station is 200C. So you solder at 2C above the melting point of 183C? Not that I don't believe you, but I think the actual tip temp is higher than you think it is.

hmm. Maybe it's broken.I'll have to get that checked. It still has warranty.
I should get a tester but not sure which one to get without taking out a small loan. And I'm skeptical about those super cheap ebay ones .
Any way the point I was making is  watts and  heat. Yes having the right heat is important but sustaining that heat is just as important. 

[DBecker]

I checked the specs and it indicates the minimum temp of the station is 200C. So you solder at 2C above the melting point of 183C? Not that I don't believe you, but I think the actual tip temp is higher than you think it is.

hmm. Maybe it's broken.I'll have to get that checked. It still has warranty.
I should get a tester but not sure which one to get without taking out a small loan. And I'm skeptical about those super cheap ebay ones .
Any way the point I was making is  watts and  heat. Yes having the right heat is important but sustaining that heat is just as important. 

You should be skeptical about cheap instruments, but they are often fine for occasional light use.  Cross check the reading when it arrives e.g. using a multimeter with a temperature setting.  If not, buy a cheap thermocouple meter at the same time.  Those $4 thermocouple meters are useful elsewhere, such as monitoring board temperatures.

[Vovk_Z]

I checked the specs and it indicates the minimum temp of the station is 200C. So you solder at 2C above the melting point of 183C? Not that I don't believe you, but I think the actual tip temp is higher than you think it is.

, I just tried to melt three my 60/40 solders at different temperatures, and it starts to melt at 150 C (at T12 station readings) and higher
Can't find my termocouple.

[Shock]

I just tried to melt three my 60/40 solders at different temperatures, and it starts to melt at 150 C (at T12 station readings) and higher

Time to do a youtube video showing free energy exists.

[KL27x]

, I just tried to melt three my 60/40 solders at different temperatures, and it starts to melt at 150 C (at T12 station readings) and higher
Can't find my termocouple.

Don't worry. If it's a cheap T12 clone station, the tip temp will droop something fierce when on a joint due to uncorrected sensor-heater coupling. In my testing on a double-sided board ground plane, a cheap T12 station droops, IIRC, something like 20-30C. Well, actually, it is 20-30C MORE than an 888 droops. (Less heatsinking of the board, less droop; more heatsinking of the board, more droop). This means the T12 clone will need a higher true/free-air setpoint to match an 888. Your iron being 35C off is one way to skin that cat and make the iron seem to overperform. But when the iron is unused and just sitting in the stand, it will quickly rise to a higher temp if there's no auto-standby. 

For the average hobbyist this works just fine. If you do high volume batch soldering, you might notice this. I did. The downside is more frequent cleaning of the tip and more frequent need to adjust the temp for the conditions. For the average hobbyist, "it gets hot so fast" makes up for it.

[DBecker]

I checked the specs and it indicates the minimum temp of the station is 200C. So you solder at 2C above the melting point of 183C? Not that I don't believe you, but I think the actual tip temp is higher than you think it is.

, I just tried to melt three my 60/40 solders at different temperatures, and it starts to melt at 150 C (at T12 station readings) and higher
Can't find my termocouple.

You have a T12 style tip with the wrong internal thermocouple for your controller.  It is likely a K type when the controller is expecting an N type.  Which would make 150C indicated about 210-220C actual.  When you were soldering at "185" that was about 260C.  (Temperature guesses from a tiny graph, not precision calculated.)


https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/measuring-temperature-from-a-t12-soldering-tip/