Frank W7IS asked: recently purchased a Xytronic 379 Auto-Temp soldering station. I also purchased several optional tips. I was mainlyinterested in the XY-B03 fine tip for circuit boards with tiny pads such as the K2 SSB board. I've found the long Xy-B03 fine tip to be worthless due to it being made out of hollow steel that wont hold the heat. The all steel tip that came with the iron is just fine if your careful in tight areas.
So my question is: Do any of the soldering stations currently being sold come with real brass or copper tips? I'm not talking about the soldering stations purchased 10 yrs ago. I mean the current production irons. Most - if not all - of todays offerings appear to be made in China and my Guess is all them have gone to 100% steel tips. The irons I have used previously from 25 yrs ago had brass or copper alloy which have a protective layer of iron on the tip. And they hold the heat perfectly, unlike these new all steel tips. Even though this Xytronic 379 has auto temp control, it cant keep up with the heat loss of the B03 hollow tip and I've found it completely useless for even a tinniest of pads ---------------------------------------------- My Hakko uses steel tips, but has no problems providing lots of heat, but it's not because the tip retains heat. Many of the newer and better temperature-controlled stations specifically do *not* want the tip to retain a lot of heat. That's because when you turn down the heat you expect the iron to cool rapidly to the new lower temperature, and when you take the iron off of the work, they don't want the temperature of 'overshoot' when lots of calories are no longer being delivered to the solder joint. Instead of a large tip mass, the depend upon robust heaters and good thermal conductivity to the tip to pump in the calories as needed to hold up the temperature when soldering and then they instantly level off when the tip is no longer in contact with the work. I don't know the Xytronic specifically, but one thing that often causes trouble with adequate heat in these types of irons is a bad thermal path from the heater to the tip - usually some black carbonized dust, etc. that gets between the heater and the tip itself. That can make an otherwise FB iron really anemic! Try disassembling the unit and carefully cleaning all the parts from the heater core to the tip! Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
