[Milsurplus] OT A BIT....What Do You Solder With?

[KD7JYK DM09]

"A friend of mine swears by the Metcal soldering stations. They are not 
cheap, but maybe a good investment"

Well...  Weller pencil irons from 25W up to 100W and Weller guns up to 325 
or so and coppers up to many ounces, some even gas fired, BUT...

If I had my wits about me, I'd have bought a Metcal when I could afford it!

I worked as a "Senior Engineering Technician and Laboratory Manager" (fancy 
words for solder flunky) for an electronics R&D firm.

I absolutely swear by the Metcals, BUT, make sure you get the correct tips 
for the job.  You need a heavy tip with good heat capacity for larger 
joints, and they are out there.  I've soldered as fine as 354 pins per inch 
by hand with a needle like tip and optics and some joints/pads comparable to 
the larger stuff you'd typically find on large through-hole mount components 
and small heat sinks.  I have NOT done really hefty work with a Metcal and 
no longer have access to them, so back to the large pencil irons and guns.

Metcals have a time-out switch in them, if you get one, turn that off, then 
turn the whole unit off when not in use, nothing worse than being mid-solder 
and having it shut down.  Last I knew, tips were in the 30-50 dollar range, 
but I got a million or more solders per tip.  Avoid aftermarket tips, we got 
some, the lifespan was a fraction of original manufacturer tips.

We had a couple other soldering stations, Weller was one, didn't like that, 
poor heat control, poor heat capacity compared to the Metcal, and even the 
Weller equivalent didn't let me get close to the small parts.

The really nice part about the Metcal is that you can get right up to the 
tip and minimize shaking. I could get to about 3/8" from the tip and work on 
microscopic parts.  I found for all my prototyping, I only needed the 
needle-like tip, a slightly fatter chisel tip for large items and tweezers 
for parts removal.  We had a couple dozen tips at least, but I used those 
three.

Kurt