As far a soldering tools go, to me, all Hams or electronic tech should own a Weller WP35 iron & 8200 gun. Both are about $45.00, tips are cheap, easy to get. The combo will solder just about any connection you have. Hakko soldering equipment ( both soldering & desoldering ) are great, but if you are not doing bench repairs or SMD repairs (the WP35 does good on older discreet devices ) are an expensive over kill. Both the WP35 & 8200 are easy to carry in the field. ( I have both in my service truck ) and you can get a assortment of tips for both. You can even make the tips for the 8200. Use name brand solder, some cheap solder will not flow well without excessive heat. A bottle of liquid rosin will really help in help in joints you want to limit the heat. Also, buy a can of flux remover, to clean the flux off your joint. Flux can absorb moisture an cause corrosion. Dr Carlson’s Lab on You Tube has a good video on soldering Robert KD5YVQ
From: BVARC <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jonathan Guthrie via BVARC Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2020 10:18 PM To: Martin Blaise via BVARC <[email protected]> Cc: Jonathan Guthrie <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Best solder The best solder? It doesn't matter. I use some cheap stuff I bought at Radio Shack in the 1980's. You can use lead-free, if you want, but I don't personally have any that's not ultra fine so getting enough solder in the joint is a problem. What matters is the iron. You need to use iron that's a honking big piece of metal. You see, when you touch the iron to the connector, it acts like a big heat sink, and the temperature of the iron drops below the temperature of the solder. You have to wait for it to heat up again, and the heat conducts into the center insulation, melting it and ruining the coax. If you don't hold it on long enough to melt the insulation, you don't get the connector hot enough to be wetted by the solder. It'll kind of work because there's some mechanical connection, but it's not really good. Using a big iron makes it easy. I got one of those that is used to solder stained glass, and it works all kinds of better for me than anything else I've ever tried. Including my temperature-controlled soldering station with the biggest tip I can get for it. On 7/30/20 6:12 PM, Martin Blaise via BVARC wrote: Just curious what is the best solder you have used on pl259 connectors? I ran out and can’t remember exactly what kind it was. ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org -- Jonathan Guthrie ARS KA8KPN
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