Best Solder and Soldering Iron

[Crusader]

Hi guys, what type of Solder and Soldering Iron do you all recommend for wiring pickups, pots and so forth?

Problems I have;

The soldering iron takes so long to heat up and I have no idea when its hot enough

I seem to have to clean the tip between every use

I keep overheating pots and ruining them

Solder seems to be too large in diameter, takes so much heat to melt it

 

Solder is 60/40 Alloy 1mm diameter

 

Thanks in advance for any comments or recommendations

 

Here is a picture of what I've been using

[Bizman62]

I have been very happy with my 48W 50€ no brand soldering station with a digital display showing both the set and real temperatures. The tip is conical. I've used it for 15 years for various uses, mostly for salvaging and changing thousands of computer motherboard capacitors. That one:

https://www.radioparts.com.au/product/38571665/zd929c-48w-soldering-station-digital-display-doss-digital-display-doss

For solder I've used cheap all-in-one 1 mm wires, lead free. Never actually thought about the quality, if it melts it's good!

The issue with your iron may be that it's too cold so you'll have to keep heating until the pot is thoroughly hot. 40W should be enough but checking the temperature is difficult.  I had similar issues until I set mine from 350 to 400 C. That heats the very surface quickly hot enough to melt the solder on the pot but the heat doesn't spread all over. That tip came from a trained electrician friend. Another tip he taught was to use new solder on the tip to remove old solder from hardened joints.

 

 

[Crusader]

Cheers thanks for that, especially that last bit about removing old solder. I sometimes use a chisel with short sharp taps with a hammer

Something also that has occurred to me is I often use wire that is too thick

With the issue of the iron temperature the way I do it is try it or see if solder will melt on it. Either way is not ideal, sometimes you don't want solder on the tip

[curtisa]

I've got a Weller WES50 soldering station on the bench as the main workhorse. It's probably discontinued now but at the time it was Weller's baseline station. Variable temperature control, rapid heatup time and LED indication of when temperature is reached.

More recently I picked up a TS100 portable pocket iron from Aliexpress and have been pleasantly surprised by it. You can get about a dozen different sizes and shapes of tips that snap in to the handle, temp control and tip temp readout built into the handle and just runs off a generic old laptop power supply with a barrel jack.

 

4 hours ago, Crusader said:

I seem to have to clean the tip between every use

It's pretty normal to be cleaning the tip before each use. Most soldering stations come with a little sponge that you're meant to keep damp and swipe the tip of the hot iron on to keep it fresh and prevent buildup of burnt solder flux.

 

4 hours ago, Crusader said:

Solder is 60/40 Alloy 1mm diameter

I assume you mean 60/40 tin/lead?Any generic tin/lead blend rosin core solder should do the trick. Avoid the lead-free or silver alloy stuff as it is impossible to work with on big chunky terminations like in a guitar control cavity.

[Crusader]

15 minutes ago, curtisa said:

I assume you mean 60/40 tin/lead?

Yes I imagine thats what it means. Its written on the coil in the photo but its a bit hard to see due to the way the light reflects off it. Alloy just means any combination of metals as far as I know so its a bit vague

[ADFinlayson]

I've got a cheapy adjustable draper soldering station. I like the fact the wattage is adjustable so I can crank it up for heating up the back of pots quickly and turn it down a bit to solder delicate pickup wires to the lugs. 

[RVA]

I really like my Hakko. I have something like this

 

https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station/dp/B00ANZRT4M/ref=asc_df_B00ANZRT4M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198093934741&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3740129149273455112&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004511&hvtargid=pla-379180582979&psc=1

[mistermikev]

this is a topic very dear to my heart... sorry i didn't see it sooner. 

I've had so many dif soldering irons over the years... but then I bought a hakko fx-888D and I've had that for probably 7 or 8 years now...

It has been absolutely fantastic.  gets up to temp in maybe 15 seconds.  you can see the temp on the led read0ut.  preset temps set in... so switching between 450 and 550 for instance, is as easy as hitting the up button one time.  the tips are very available and I've had the same tip on there for probably 2 years.  it was a tip I put on to do smd components, very fine tip, just haven't bothered changing it as it works for everything I do.  I keep closing a drawer and catching the cord for the pencil... which is replaceable... but it just keeps working.  

for me... doing a pot is easy peasy.  turn the temp to 550, clean/scratch up the pot where I want to solder, touch the tip to the pot for maybe 5 seconds and then touch the solder to the area to be soldered.  have done that on everything from alpha to cts to bourns... no problem.

afa best solder... bought a big spindle of kester .031" solder about 2 years ago and I'm not even 1/4 way through.  I solder fx pedals, guitar setups, and other odds/ends.  it's the best I've found.

all that said... I bought a cheap iron to keep in my garage.  off amazon... primarily use it to back out dents in wood... but I used it to solder up my speaker cabs when I built them and it worked great.  was $25.  temp controlled (dial) iron.  the issue with these cheap irons is the tips do not last and you can't buy replacement tips (that work well) anywhere so when the tip(s) wear(s) out you are buying a new iron.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station/dp/B00ANZRT4M/ref=sr_1_2?crid=M4XNQ75N1HKT&keywords=hakko+fx-888d&qid=1658237325&s=industrial&sprefix=hakko+fx-888d%2Cindustrial%2C120&sr=1-2

 

https://www.amazon.com/Kester-24-6337-8800-Activated-Solder-No-Clean/dp/B00068IJOU/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=B00068IJOU&psc=1