Temperature guidelines for soldering

[cpercival]

I've searched here and on the web and haven't been able to find some general guidelines for soldering iron temperatures for different RC applications. I just bought a Hakko FX-888 and now have the ability to actually set tip temperatures. What is a good temp to solder 12-14 gauge motor leads, battery connectors, and ESC connections? What about smaller gauge stuff like wiring LEDs or wiring to circuit boards like a Punk Dig unit?

Thanks for any advice.

[JSN]

No real guideline...just hot enough to heat the joint and melt the solder QUICKLY. The hotter the iron the faster the tip degrades and you risk getting components to hot and damaging them IF you stay on the joint to long... having said that... my hakko with the large chisel tip runs about 725 or so when I'm Doing ESC's, motors and deans... I may bump that up a bit if i'm Desoldering. For smaller stuff closer to 700 and even less if I'm using a pencil tip working on say a circuit board.

The key to soldering is CLEAN, TINNED SURFACES, CLEAN, BRIGHT SHINEY TINNED soldering iron tip and....FLUX!!!! even with rosin core solder either liquid or paste rosin flux is required IMHO... try additional flux just once and see just how much faster and cleaner the joint is and you'll NEVER solder with just plain old rosin core solder again

John

[cpercival]

Pretty much what I was looking for - just some real general guidelines from someone who has the same soldering station. Thank you

[agent00111]

I've heard that for soldering directly on ESC's that hotter/faster is better, and I've also heard the opposite: lower temperature when soldering on ESC or other PCB's. What has been your guys experience? If you're from the hotter/faster camp, what's a good iron temperature, and what's a good not-to-exceed time to apply heat to solder on ESC?

[JohnRobHolmes]

Hotter is better, until the iron tip starts to degrade or the filler gets overheated. Each time the part is heated it reduces the life or can risk damage. For example, d2pak FETs are rated for 260c reflow for 10 to 30 seconds, with a very controlled heating and cooling time to prevent thermal shock. This is 500f. With an iron that is too close to the melting point of the filler, the entire via will rise in temperature before the filler can melt. A hotter iron will locally heat the parts enough to melt the filler without giving enough time for heat to transfer along the entire via. For rework, hotter is gooder.

Max time to apply heat? As fast as possible!

I generally set my iron between 650 and 750 for work with 60/40 filler.

[z50king]

I usually run around 700F with my fx888

[Docwolf]

I run a 30 year old western auto 150 watt gun...so what ever temp that runs at LOL. she does a great job with a clean tip and the right solder.