Well, the actual soldering part I have down pretty well. My problem is trying to figure out what soldering iron/station to buy.
I did my soldering back at the electronics lab at college, and they had a soldering station with a dial that you could pick a temperature up to like 5000 degrees. They had solder of all gauges.
Now I'm home, and the only half-decent selection of soldering supplies I can find is at Radio-Shack (the home of amazingly overpriced electronic supplies).
My choices there are:
Regular soldering irons in the 15-40 watt range (6-10$)
Soldering guns (much higher wattage) (15-40$)
A soldering station with a digital temperature selector up to 2000 degrees (70$).
My first part of confusion, is that some are rated only in wattage, and some are weighted only in degrees. I haven't been able to find anything anywhere that gives a relation between wattage and degrees such that I could compare them.
I current have a 15/30w soldering iron, and some silver bearing solder. Apparently the silver bearing solder requires higher temparatures, and it doesn't solder easily at all with a 30w iron. It won't melt unless you touch it directly to the iron for a minute. But it was the only choice at radio shack for the small gauge I needed (for soldering mods on video game chips).
In an unrelated story, my wife wants to do jewelry soldering. She wants to be able to solder onto metal foil. Best I can find on the internet says that's nearly impossible since it dissipates energy too fast. But she has a beading book that claims you can do it with a 50w iron.
So, pretend I don't know anything and just throw all the info at me you can. I would like to know if the soldering station which has selectable temperature would be able to put out significantly more energy such that we could accomplish our tasks. Or if she needs a high-wattage soldering gun for her tasks. And if I just need different solder for my task?
Thanks,
JMT.
I did my soldering back at the electronics lab at college, and they had a soldering station with a dial that you could pick a temperature up to like 5000 degrees. They had solder of all gauges.
Now I'm home, and the only half-decent selection of soldering supplies I can find is at Radio-Shack (the home of amazingly overpriced electronic supplies).
My choices there are:
Regular soldering irons in the 15-40 watt range (6-10$)
Soldering guns (much higher wattage) (15-40$)
A soldering station with a digital temperature selector up to 2000 degrees (70$).
My first part of confusion, is that some are rated only in wattage, and some are weighted only in degrees. I haven't been able to find anything anywhere that gives a relation between wattage and degrees such that I could compare them.
I current have a 15/30w soldering iron, and some silver bearing solder. Apparently the silver bearing solder requires higher temparatures, and it doesn't solder easily at all with a 30w iron. It won't melt unless you touch it directly to the iron for a minute. But it was the only choice at radio shack for the small gauge I needed (for soldering mods on video game chips).
In an unrelated story, my wife wants to do jewelry soldering. She wants to be able to solder onto metal foil. Best I can find on the internet says that's nearly impossible since it dissipates energy too fast. But she has a beading book that claims you can do it with a 50w iron.
So, pretend I don't know anything and just throw all the info at me you can. I would like to know if the soldering station which has selectable temperature would be able to put out significantly more energy such that we could accomplish our tasks. Or if she needs a high-wattage soldering gun for her tasks. And if I just need different solder for my task?
Thanks,
JMT.