N-Scale Decoder Installation Soldering Station

I don't know which one your Weller is, but it sounds like the 100-watt pistol grip job. For electronics soldering, a fairly cheap pencil iron from Weller or Dremel (35-40 watts) is fine for that kind of work since you won't be using the iron for long periods at a time. If you want precise control of the iron's tip heat, then you may consider a professional unit that comes with a built-in heat sensor in the tip - probably costs quite a few bucks more. Online electronics suppliers (Mouser and Micro-Mark come to mind) can give you an idea of the pricing of those units.

Regards, Gordon.

Gordon, The weller i'm referring to actually has a control knob for the power. 5-40 watts is the range. I'm more interested in tip sizes. i.e. is 1mm a good size or too big for n-scale work.

Thanks for your response, Kevin

If you are just soldering wires, I've found their small screwdriver head (or whatever the correct name is) to be very useful. There is a cone tip but, I haven't used it yet.

Good luck, Paul

The WCL100 actually has tip temperature control and I love it. You can purchase finer tips. The tip that came with it is a standard and is good enough for most soldering. I purchased both a heavy chisel and a fine tip. The heavy tip can handle larger jobs because it holds more heat and can deliver more to the joint.

I got my tips from U-Do-It in Boston. You could try Halted in Sunnyvale and they have a web site.

The temperature control is very nice.

Best

Ken Harst> Hello!

I usually use a 1/16" (1.5mm) tip for decoder installations but have used 1/32" (.75mm) as well. Depends on how small the points (pads) I am soldering to - example, on the pads on an LE077XF decoder, the smaller tip works better for me.

Ray Schwarz

"Kev> Gordon,

power. 5-40