Soldering Hey everyone, one thing I have always hated doing was soldering deans plugs on my speed controls and batteries. I think part of it for me is that I only have the $5 radio shack gun. Does a good gun really make that much difference or is it just technique? |
How many watts is the gun? I recommend over 45 for 12+ gauge wire. Hobbico makes a great 60W iron that goes for under $10. Most lhs's sell them. |
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Then I guess that's why I was having so much trouble, it was 25 watts. :oops: I'll pick up a nice 60 watt one soon. Is it best to have the pencil type, or the gun type? |
Haha this is funny I just souldered a deans for the first time on my goat 3s with 2 BEC'S :shock:. I used a $5 30 watt iron from Harbor Freight and my joints ended nice and strong but a higher wattage iron would have been nice. I don't really have to much experience but hope this helps:mrgreen: |
i used all kinds of guns/pencil type irons and when i bought my hakko 936, i'll never go back now "thumbsup" ....only cost me 69 bucks on sale and was the best 69 bucks i spent........bob .... |
Personally I prefer either pencil or gun type as long as the neck is fairly short. Not that easy to solder small joints with a 15'' long pencil. Somewhere between 3 and 5 inches should be good and about 60 or so watts. |
a good soldering iron is the single best investment i've made in this hobby. i bought the team checkpoint TC950, which is a rebadged hakko iron(model 936 i believe) and it has yet to fail me. every time i use it i'm glad i bought it. so long story short, yes it makes a difference "thumbsup" |
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quality equipment matters. You dont need to get a really bad ass one but it helps. A technique that works for me with the deans is use sandpaper to rough up the deans surface and apply some flux. then strip wire and put a dab of flux on that also. clean soldering tip and get a "tin" it up(get a small drop of hot solder on there) and put that on the wire. It should melt the flux and drop of solder will absorb into wire. Then clean tip again and get another drop of solder and hold wire to deans and touch the deans and wire at same time. it should bond in like 10 seconds if not less. make sure you remember heat shrink. the trick is the solder on the wire... that way you dont need 3 hands to hold wire, gun, solder. |
a good iron makes a big difference, but technique is important too. Heat it quick, use flux every time, tin everything first, roughing the surface up, etc. all great ideas, all will really help make it an easy experience instead of a chore. I actually quit using a soldering iron completely, and started using a little butane pencil torch. I actually like it a lot better for doing things like connectors. It heats the wire, the connector and the solder much more quickly so there's less deformation of the plastic. You've got to be careful of course with the open flame...it's easy to melt something adjacent or behind your joint if you're soldering it in place on the truck. lots of options...but the best first step is definetly a better iron |
All of the above tips are good ones. Another thing is to apply a small bit of solder onto the hot tip before applying it to the surface you are heating in order to make a "solder Bridge" between the iron and the part."thumbsup" And as it was stated above...rough up the surface a bit and it can never be clean enough...clean, clean clean! Also don't forget to clean off the excess flux after the job is complete, alcohol and a trimmed up acid brush work great. |
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