Hey all, I have been struggling with a small electric plane over the past few weeks. It seems as though i lack the gentle touch these models require. In turn, I spend a lot of down time have the model re-wired. Are there any small soldering guns the someone can reccomend....If so, what are some other toold that may make my life a little easier?
-KB
I find soldering guns somewhat limited. I prefer a good 40 watt iron with a
1/4 inch chisel tip and for small work an 1/8" chiseled tip. A good iron is a Weller SP40L for all round light duty work, for finer work you might find the SP23L with 1/8" dia pencil tip very useful. Neither of these come with a big price tag and replacement tips are readily available. Keep the tip well tinned an redress or replace when it becomes pitted.
And don't *ever* use it to melt foam. Best way to ruin a tip.
great, i appreciate the advice...i'll check these items out
-KB
Use an old tip to make a foam cutter, cut a slot in it and then insert a piece of brass sheeting thick enough so it won't collapse and cut away. You can also drill a couple of 1/16" holes in a flattened section of an old iron tip and put in any special cutter shape you want formed from 1/16 steel welding rod inserted in the old tip and crimped there.
Red S.
I have used #12 house wire with my old Weller soldering gun for cutting channels into foam, etc.
Some pencil type soldering irons will accept an X-acto knife blade holder and #11 blade (other types too, obviously). You can then use a light dimmer to control the heat of the soldering iron.
Ed Cregger
| I have been struggling with a small electric plane over the past few | weeks. It seems as though i lack the gentle touch these models | require. In turn, I spend a lot of down time have the model re-wired.
What exactly are you soldering? I've not found the need to do too much soldering to put together a plane.
The things you do solder are connectors onto their wires, ESCs to motors and battery packs. And sometimes you'll resolder an antenna onto a RX or fix a bad solder joint in the RX, stuff like that.
Except for the last one (i.e. soldering inside the RX), you really don't want a small soldering iron -- you want something a little bigger so you have plenty of heat and can get the job done quickly. It's taking a long time that ruins stuff, not using an iron that's too big.
Also, you might be using the term gun when you mean iron, but really, for most things, a soldering iron is better than a soldering gun.
Whatever you're soldering, keeping the tip clean is key so that heat will flow quickly.
| Are there any small soldering guns the someone can reccomend....If so, | what are some other toold that may make my life a little easier?
Sometimes flux will help, to help clean things before you solder ...
Having some sort of jig or `3rd hand' sort of setup to hold the things you're soldering is useful.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required