Soldering gun/iron

[MaxxZilla]

I would like to purchase a good one for soldering motors and making battery packs, I have always made due with the crappy kind you find a fred meyers that take about 20 minutes to get hot and you have to hold it on the terminals for 2 minutes to get it to melt the solder. Just want to know what you guys use, the price and where to buy.

[tmaxxking1]

hakko 936 soldering station

there about 80 nib on ebay

and still sell for 70 on the forums used

[kerosinek]

I bought one from my LHS, $20 for the soldering iron, replacement tips, and an exacto knife tip as well. It take about 8-10 minutes to heat up and it melts the solder the instant it touches it. I'll find out what it is tomorrow.

[Johnson420]

Sears Craftsman and Radioshack have a pretty good Dual-Heat 230/150 watt Soldering Gun for $30
I picked up the one from Radioshack and it works good

[skellyo]

I use a $6, 60W Hobbico from Tower Hobbies. It's cheap and produces more than enough heat to flow solder on sub-c's quickly.

[Tronk]

I use a 100w Sealey SD100. I use it for making my battery packs. It heats up really fast and you only touch the battery terminals for an immediate melt of the solder. Dont forget that you dont want to heat the terminals for longer that a "one thousand, two thousand" count otherwise you can damage the batteries.

Also get an iron with a broad tip for making the batteries.I also recommend the pencil type of soldering iron rather than the gun type.

I bought mine from ebay. Dont forget to flux also

[rcracer]

I think you want to stick with a 60 watt or higher to do battery packs. reason is, you dont want to apply heat to the battery cell longer than you need to; it could damage the cell.

I use a weller 80 watt

[MaxxZilla]

Thanks for the replys, I will go see what sears has to offer. Then decide between that and the 936 mentioned above.

[pureadrenalin]

Just get the one from CHEAP BATTERY PACKS with HAMMERHEAD tip for 19.99. iT GETS THE JOB DONE. Give Mike a call there great guys.

[MaxxZilla]

So I was trying to solder deans to replace the tamiya connectors my truck came with and I could not get the solder to stick to the deans terminals. Is flux required? I just could not get it to stick at all and when it did it would come off if I tugged slightly. I've soldered Deans before and not had as much trouble.

[tmaxxking1]

depends on the solder your using

i use flux no matter what solder i use

teambrood has a real nice liquid flux

google team brood batteries

[tmaxxking1]

here's the link

http://www.teambrood.com/catalog/index.php

[Tronk]

Regarding soldering the deans connectors. Get a dremel or a file and scuff the tabs on the connector where you want the solder to stick to.

[MaxxZilla]

Ok thanks I'll try that.

[fatboysracing]

got it at grainger for 35$ this thing is awesome!! you have to be carefull not to desolder the other half af the battery bar when you touch the next battery cell!!!!

[traylor4x4]

weller 100 or 140 watt, from home depot works like a champ for $30.00

[Savrunner]

I have a Hakko, but a model down from the 936 I believe, but I got it on ebay i think for about $56. other RC guys with experience have told me that the Hakko is the way to go.

['83 chevy]

i use a snap-on gun style soldering gun, its like 170/250 watt, its gets hot instantly. i never had good luck with the pencil style ones.

[Chris_The_Battery_Man]

I use the ones that we sell on our website all day making all sorts of packs. They never let me down. There are alot of things you can do to make nearly any iron work well. Pre-tinning EVERYTHING. If you dont pre-tin the deans and the wires, then they are going to be a pain in the a$$ to solder together. Get a good 60/40 Rosin core solder and a nice iron and you'll never have problems. Another tip is to make sure that whatever tip is on the iron is clean and as silver as the solder. If there is alot of black crap and the solder doesn't stick to the iron when you put it on the iron.... take a file and sand it down to its bare meterial then tin the iron while its hot. Transfering heat properly is a big help too. For exaple, if you stick a dry, but hot iron on the backside of a deans plug, then try to tin it.... it will take a long time to get the solder to melt. But if you put a little dab of solder on a clean tip then touch it to whatever your tinning/soldering, the heat will flow much better and you wond melt plugs and kill batts. Hope this is usefull....

Chris

[Tanis]

I use the one from CheapBatteryPacks.com, it works really good. Get's super hot and it is inexpensive. I would recomend it to anyone. Also use the hammerhead tip on batteries, that he sells.
Nathan