Desoldering question (Miller XMT welder repair)

My Weller digital tip temperature controlled iron is *great*. You really want one, whether you know it or not. Huge amounts of power, delivered exactly as you need it, to heat up a solder joint to the right temperature.

I have to think it could have been a couple of dollars cheaper, as I've never moved the temperature off of 750F and don't really care about the digital temperature display.

But it does what I need it to do, when I need it to do it. What could be better?

Does anyone know what happened to the Edsyn "Loner" iron? That used to be my favorite, but I don't see them offered any more. Complete thermal control of the tip in a very lightweight and skinny handle.

Enjoy, DoN.

What did you make your desolder station out of? I'd be interested to see since I'd consider making my own as well.

Mike

I am not the party to whom this query was directed, but I too made a desoldering station; I used the vacuum pump from an IBM 360/30 mainframe and a new commercial head and filter unit (Weller?, I forget the brand and the unit is in storage) which at the time cost me perhaps $10.00.

For SMT work, see my homebrew solution at:

Michael

:In article , : Ross Herbert wrote: : : :> I would resort to a pure liquid activated flux which sadly is no longer :> produced, Magna Alloys type 87. I still have a small quantity left but when :> that :> is gone... : :We use Kester 1544 for hand soldering, and desoldering as well. It's :fully activated and works very well. At 50% solids content, it's too :thick for a foaming flux bath, but works well in a capillary dispenser :for hand work. Maybe you have a Kester distributor there? They produce a :large and varied flux line.

Kester products not distributed in Australia as far as I can tell. We generally rely upon the Multicore range which is part of the giant German Henkel group. Multicore solder products are grouped under the Loctite brand owned by Henkel.

Basically I wanted something I couldn't really find on the market - or certainly at a price I could afford. So gleaned bits off Ebay, etc.

I like Antex handsets for soldering so wanted those. And easy selection of two with different bit sizes. Auto switch off after a period of time - I've set that at 5 hours. A good buy on Ebay got a Pace SX-80 handset new. Another a Pace pump from a non working base unit. All the electronics are home designed. To keep the size of the main unit down the pump is in an external box.

Pic here:-

Sweet! What did you use to design / print the front panel ? Last few years, I've been using the drawing facilities embedded in MSWord (they actually work very well, and are very accurate, once you get to grips with them), and then printing out and laminating the result. This is then stuck to the front panel using a spray contact adhesive that my mate the carpet fitter gave me. It's very good, but it gives you no second chance ...

Arfa

Clue: I leave mine set at 400, unless it's big work and it obviously needs a bit more - 60/40 solder melts at 350 - 360ish F, some of the lead-free solders are a bit higher. (The exact numbers are available in the manufacturer literature.)

The whole idea is to /not/ cook the traces right off the board.

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Designed using Draw on my RISC OS computer and made with the anodised aluminium printing system from RS Components. Not cheap but good value for one offs. And gives a very robust finish.

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I haven't seen any since 2001. We had about 200 of them at Microdyne. I was 'loaned' to the ME office a couple times to test and calibrate every iron in the facility. Did you ever use the .015" tip, with the collet for surface mount work? They were more trouble than they were worth. the .015" Ersin rework solder was great. When all the tips were gone, I went back to the smallest standard tip from Plato, and used a corner to apply heat.

Ouch! Is the company still around? Do they still repair them? Mine have a significant failure of the strain relief, plus some fracturing of the clear handle.

Nope! I did use the smallest which I had with some solid copper wire from phone cable wrapped a couple of turns around the tip and then directed out and tinned for the little surface mount work I did -- under a stereo zoom microscope.

I've still got got some of that -- and love it.

O.K.

Enjoy, DoN.

That works with a thick tip, but when you get into the small stuff, the thermal mass of the component and traces takes a long time to heat with so little delta-T. I usually do tin-lead mass soldering at about 650 F, but go to 700 or even 750 for desoldering and rework. You need 750 for lead-free solder. Now, this is for these needle-point tips which just can't flow as much heat.

Jon

Thanks. I've now got an e-mail on the way to their site.

Again, thanks, DoN.

You're welcome. Solder is one of my favorite metals. ;-)

And it was the first metal that I worked regularly.

Bad news. The irons are too old for them to have any repair parts still around. The choices seem to be for me to make my own handle for the broken one, or to buy a more modern version.

Thanks anyway, DoN.

I started at 10. My dad had a crappy old iron that was pretty bad, but it did melt solder. Of course, the stuff that was easy to find in the early '60s was large diameter 50/50 cored junk that was already dull looking when you bought it.

There is always Ebay. OTOH, a newer iron would have parts available, if you have to depend on always having a good iron available. I had three 'Loners' on my bench at Microdyne, and spent the first five minutes of each day cleaning and testing them for tip to ground resistance and inspecting the tips.

Now, where DID I put all those spare, NOS 175 Watt American Beauty soldering iron elements? I know I had at least a dozen. :(

I haven't needed any replacement parts other than the generic 100 watt tips for my Weller Junior that I bought, mail order from Allied sometime in the early '50s. I've bought several newer copies for a buck or two on Saturday mornings since the and found homes for them among offspring, friends and/or acquaintances, but the old original stays plugged in my shop (it was loaned out for 1959 to a TV repair shop owner whose Wen gun ate tips at one per week). Granted, this is not the tool for modern printed circuit work, and I have some specials, but then, I am somewhat of an antique myself. Gerry :-)} London, Canada