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Author Topic: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?  (Read 9885 times)

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Offline AdminTopic starter

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soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« on: January 04, 2008, 05:25:39 PM »
I have like a billion boards to solder up with through-hole components, and its taking me about 10 minutes per board after practice. Thats only 6 per hour . . .

So I want to speed that up with one of those soldering guns that auto feed solder. (unless you have a better suggestion)

Anyone use one and/or have recommendations? Know a good place to get one?

This is the only one I could find:
http://www.chsinteractive.co.uk/electrical-components/latest-products/soldering-gun-30-60w-230v-with-automatic-solder-feed-designed-for-1mm-solder-skytronic.htm


Offline Caduscus

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2008, 08:55:49 PM »
that sounds cool, but mabye too good to be true, be careful some of those might be crap and feed you too much or too little solder... :-\

Offline ed1380

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2008, 09:13:20 PM »
build a robot to do it for you  :P


IMO it will make it harder for the following reason-
pistol grip soldering irons arent as acurate and will take time to get used to
as mentioned it wont feed like you want it to
if you have a vice/3rd hand/brave friend to hold it for you the standard way i think is as fast as it might get
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paulstreats

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2008, 11:03:28 PM »
I presume that the trigger is the mechanism responisble for feeding the solder, you will eventually get used to it. If you squeeze too had you get a lot of solder. If you dont squeeze hard enough, you dont get enough solder.

The hard part is when the end of the iron gun is too big and you feel over clumbsy when trying to touch the end of the gun to the component and the board(remember that you have to heat the component aswell as the solder pad). If the end is too wide you will have problems.

Also most guns like that are "electric" soldering guns. Be careful if this is the case

Offline dunk

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2008, 08:07:00 AM »
we had some guys come in to a work site of mine a couple of years ago.
they had to rework a few thousand motherboards. changing one surface mount resistor for another.
(horrible job. glad we got those guys in to do it.)

now i know this was surface mount not through hole but still worth mentioning.

so the setup they used was a standard high quality soldering iron and regular solder. (i was so impressed with the soldering iron i now own one. one of the Wellar units with separate PSU.)
it was the bench they brought with them that allowed them to work quickly. it was like a draught man's table with horizontal rails to hold multiple PCBs. they then had one of those big angle poised magnifying glasses combined with a lamp (http://smtinspection.com/images/ml3000.jpg) which ran on rails down the length of the table. their chairs likewise ran on casters the length of the table.
they would position about 12 MOBOs on the table then start at one end slide chair and lamp/magnifier down from one MOBO to the next.
they were turning out a table full in under 3 mins including racking and unracking the boards if i remember correctly.

the point i'm making, it appears from this that the ergonomic setup (light, magnification and seating position) saves more time than the tools.
obviously you couldn't mimic this exact setup as with through hole components you need access to both sides of the board but it was a valuable lesson to me about how much easier you can make your work if you prepare you workspace.                                                                                                                                                                                                       


dunk.

Offline Trumpkin

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2008, 08:48:35 AM »
Dunk, Where did you get that soldering iron? And also, i've heard that soldering guns are bad for sensitive componenents.
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Offline ed1380

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2008, 09:00:16 AM »
Dunk, Where did you get that soldering iron? And also, i've heard that soldering guns are bad for sensitive componenents.
as long as you dont everheat them. but unsoldering stuff is a breeze  ;D
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Offline dunk

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2008, 09:08:54 AM »
Quote
Dunk, Where did you get that soldering iron?
search farnell.com
i *think* it was the "wsd 81" i got. can't remember exactly and i'm not at home just now to look.

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Offline AdminTopic starter

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Re: soldering iron with auto solder feed recommendations?
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2008, 01:13:53 PM »
Quote
they then had one of those big angle poised magnifying glasses combined with a lamp (http://smtinspection.com/images/ml3000.jpg)
I used to have one like that . . . until some noob contractors doing airduct work in my lab totally destroyed it and didn't even report the damage . . . :'(
Which reminds me . . . I should buy a new one . . . but . . . anyway . . .

Since its through-hole, and I'm only 26 yrs old (cough cough :P), I'm fine with a naked eye for this.

And holding the the boards/components in place isn't a problem.

Its just a got a billion holes (mostly male headers) in each board, and I can't feed the solder by hand fast enough. I should get some thicker solder I guess . . .

As for soldering stations, I have one even nicer than that. Reflow and everything . . . $250 . . .

Anyway, you guys convinced me NOT to get the gun style . . . so looking around more I found these:
http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_373.html
http://www.howardelectronics.com/jbc/al2500.html

But they are insanely expensive!!!

I can probably easily make my own feeder that operates like this:
http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_375.html

 


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