Soldering iron wattage-temperature

[$a1Ty]

Hey guys, did a search and nothing directly on this so...

I'm looking at buying a new soldering station which is rated at 60w with adjustable temp 150 - 450°C, heres the linky
so my question is, does the wattage directly relate to the temperature cos i thought it would seeing as how current and power are related

cos i would like to maybe use it for circuitry but mostly for making audio cables and the like

discuss away

[Martijn]

Wattage is how many power it is using to get to a certain temperature (in this case). This means that it uses around 60Watts to get to 450C. With soldering, only temps are important.

[persivore]

The temperature will be constant with almost all irons - between 350 to 450*c. Most solder will melt at about 300*c.
The power of the soldering iron effects how long the iron can stay hot when you are heating something. With higher powered irons, you can heat large objects much faster than you could with a lower powered iron, but you risk damaging/burning the PCB if you use a too powerful iron.

[sluggo]

Damaging a PCB is a function of time and temperature. The power of the iron is not a factor, unless you're on the ground plane of a large PCB. The power of the iron, as you said, is an indicator of how well the iron can maintain it's temp when it's losing a lot of heat to the work.

For making cables you want a fairly high output iron. Test with some pieces of cable to find the right combination of time and temperature that allows you to put solder on the wire without melting the cable jacket. A good practice is to put solder on the cable, then put solder on the connector, then solder the cable and connector to one another.

[$a1Ty]

cool thanks guys, whats a good temp to work at with pcb's?

[craig588]

As hot as you can go. I use a 45 watt iron really quickly because it's better than waiting for the 15 watt iron.

Maybe if you don't care about taking a half hour rather than 5 minutes you could go colder/weaker, but I don't like to waste that much time.

[$a1Ty]

cool i was just checking, i've had experience soldring with pcb's so when i read all the horror stories of ppl burning pcb's i was going huh lol anyways sweet, i will buy this unit, we've got the same one at my church and its really nice

[mvagusta]

does the priest make his own lead-soldered windows or something?

[$a1Ty]

no, i'm in the tech crew, so we have one there to make patch leads and stuff

[D0Z3R]

does the priest make his own lead-soldered windows or something?

A roadie for the almighty

[Dave_Sz]

If you're using the soldering iron on electronics, pcb's, delicate stuff, don't use more than a 15w iron. For other stuff, whatever.

[scarface_what]

for soldering micro electronics (vmods and such) use a 25w

[craig588]

I use a 45 and never have problems. Anything lower is too slow.

[SnipingWaste]

I use a 45 and never have problems. Anything lower is too slow.

Same with me. If the point is big then file it down to the right size.