For
the makers, especially the newbies, it usually gets tough to select
that one right iron for your soldering work. Here's a quick guide to
help you make the right choice. Happy making!
Atithya Amaresh
With a huge range of soldering irons available in the market
today, choosing the appropriate one for yourself might be confusing at times.
The rule of thumb here is to pick an iron that gels well into the type of work you intend to put it
into.
Getting in details, there are 3 major factors to consider
while picking up your iron:
1. the type of
iron,
2. the temperature system
3. the wattage.
Let's read whats what in details:
1. Type of Iron
Majorly there are 4 types of irons you can consider: Soldering
pencil, Soldering
Gun, Soldering
station, Rework/repair
station
Soldering Pencil
The most basic and simple type of
soldering tool which can simply be used for small DIY projects. These pencils
range from INR 130 to 700 depending upon wattage and build quality. You can find
good deals at Flipkart
or eBay.
Although these soldering pencil are
not recommended for fine soldering as they do have any temperature control system
for the iron tip. Over exposure to heat during soldering might damage the components
and peel off tracks present on the circuit board.
Soldering Gun
A higher and a little more
sophisticated form of soldering pencil is soldering gun. The main component
that differentiate is from a soldering pencil is the transformer on the
machine. This transformer is capable of converting 110 V AC to a lower voltage.
As the secondary winding of this transformer has only one turn, the transformer
is capable of producing extremely low voltage and several hundred amperes of
current.
Also having a very small warm up
time, these guns can be easily turned on and off in very short time. These guns
range from INR 750 to INR 1500. You can get few good deals on eBay.
Although again these guns can
generate too much heat to be used on fine circuit boards, hence they are not
recommend to be used for circuit board and components.
Soldering stations
Growing in functionalities,
sophistication and usage from soldering pencil and guns the third level of
soldering tools are the Soldering stations. These stations consists of
soldering pencil that are attached to a power station. This power station can
control the temperature settings for the soldering pencil’s tip. Higher
versions of these soldering stations also come with electronic temperature
control that allows you to set and maintain the temperature very precisely. These
electronics temperature controller automatically keeps an appropriate
temperature at the iron tip.
The price ranges from INR 300 to
7000 based upon the wattage and size of the soldering stations. You can find
good deals on ebay
and flipkart.
Due to their temperature control
capability, these Soldering station are safe to be used with most of the soldering
projects like soldering through-hole and fine surface-mount components.
Rework/repair systems
A rework/repair system is even
more complex soldering platform which is most commonly used by professionals in
industry or by the high-volume manufacturers. These soldering systems have a
combination of several hand pieces which includes soldering iron, hot-air guns,
de-soldering guns, thermo-tweezers, et al.
From small
rework soldering stations to sophisticated ones, these stations are comes in a
price range of INR 3000 to 200000. You can find some good deals at eBay.
2. Temperature
The major types of soldering irons based on temperature
designs:
1) Irons with no temperature control: these are usually the
least expensive type of irons. You simply need to plug them in and they are
ready to use once they are warmed up. These irons are best suited for household
soldering jobs.
2) Temperature controlled Irons: like some of the soldering
guns, allows the user to ensure that the iron’s tip maintains the right
temperature throughout the usage. These irons are slightly more expensive than
the basic soldering irons.
3) Soldering stations: Like mentioned above in types of
soldering tools, we also have soldering stations in the market that comes with
a separate temperature control unit.
3. Wattage
Other than choosing the type of Iron you want to use, you
also need to pick up the type of wattage you desire. A typical soldering iron
provides wattage between fifteen and twenty-five watts. Irons with higher
wattage allows the irons store more power in reserve allowing them to remain
heated for a longer duration of time which also makes them better suited for
heavy-duty projects.
Note: previously the size and shape of the iron’s tip was
another major factor while buying the right soldering tool, but with irons with
changeable tips in the market, this problem seems solved.
Hope this guide will help you buy the right iron. Enjoy
making!
Thanks to EFY..!!!
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