Mine's a bit screwy. It gets the job done, but.. it's a bit nasty. So i'm looking for an iron with a finer tip (it'll likely get alot of use with computer tiny soldering vmod type stuff). Any suggestions? I think the wattage of the iron should be fairly low, right? I think the one have is like.. 25w, and I read 15-18W somewhere I think. Sound about right?

I was looking at this one anyway: http://www.mackay.co.uk/acatalog/Catalogue..._Irons_571.html

Fine tip on that, but is 12W good enough?

Also, solder... I keep reading 'rosin' core, but can't find any yet. What's good about it? Does it make life easier? Would I be able to get away with this stuff instead: http://www.mackay.co.uk/acatalog/Catalogue...older_1708.html (the second item on that page). 0.7mm, so that's about the same... fineness... as the actual iron. A fine tip would make my life easier, I think. Soldering points tend to be tiny on all the soldering I end up doing.

General advice really I guess

I have 4 of them ranging from 18 to 80W.
the one i use most of the time is the 25W, it melts faster and to me it works the best, but i guess it's how good you are with those things, personally, i wouldn't choose a 18W, too darn slow to melt solder.
If you're like me, you get your piece in front of you iron in one hand and solder in the other, hold your breath and go at it it takes half a second to do the work, that's what i like lol And for that you ned something with more balls than a 18W lol
the solder looks good though

I also recently bought one of those cold heat, very nice little gadget, does the job but the point is too big, and you can get the pointy point but >think geek < the friggin leaches charges you double the cost of the piece for shipping, and you cant get the replacement points at any other place than those bas...

Happy soldering, dont burn your fingers lol

Oh, so like 12W is gonna be super slow melting then? Just that came with the super fine tip, which is nice...

Burn my fingers? I usually tread on my iron... OW

http://www.dutchguard.com/products/Cold_Solder_Set.html

Cold heat doesn't work on sensitive equipment, so don't plan on doing any volt-modding

Yeah, I know...I was just trying to save his feet!!

haha very thoughtful of you, thanks

I think I am gonna go with that 12W iron and solder I originally linked to. Maybe... or maybe I should get the 18W and buy a fine tip seperate, so if I ever need to do slightly bigger soldery bits then I can. Hmm, I dunno *cries*

Seen this: http://www.brewstersbatteries.co.uk/catalo...&products_id=73

and this tip: http://www.brewstersbatteries.co.uk/catalo...&products_id=76

1mm tip vs 0.6mm tip. Argh. 1mm.. is that small enough.. hmm

alright markie.. maplin have the 50W variable solder station with a conical tapered point tip for 13 quid (usually 30 or 40 quid) for maybe a week longer? it's a promotion... i have it... it's fully variable from er, very low to 50W... makes it VERY much easier to do surface-mounted pcb work like vmodding my 9800 pro... i had trouble even SEEing where i was supposed to solder to cos the tracks were SO small!!! but when my hand stopped shaking around like crazy (doesn't usually, guess i got scared with my first vmod) it was a piece a piss...

i'd highly recommend one! fine pointy tip is standard, and you can get a chisel tip or a erm... what's it called? like a pencil rubbed down at a diagonal... like a straw on a Ribena carton!

Nice nrg, i'll give that a look right now, before sleep. Soldering = more important than sleeping

My hands used to shake loads when I first took my iron to the xbox... i'm alright with it now though Pretty confident, I mean.. if I can solder these diddly little things with this piece of crap iron, a finer tip should only make it easier

Is this the one? http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...rldID=&doy=13m3

Thing I don't like about maplin is they don't actually state the tip sizes Any chance of a picture of the fine tip you get with it or something, so I have a rough idea?

mr ribena straw! I know what you mean though! Sounds .. a little too good to be true type thing!

i've got a butane powered one from radio shack, works great!

it is almost too good to be true... a 30 odd quid variable iron for 13 quid... bargin hehe... i'll take a pic right now next to a metal rule!

Thanks!!

I'm still staring at that 18W Antex iron too I found a 0.5mm bit for it over at rapid, look out world!!!

i got my soldering iron at radio shack. it can be changed between 15W and 30W. It was like 10bucks. it works good too. i used it to voltmod my X800XT.

ere ya go markie... looks to be bang on 1mil at the tip...

Just measured mine right now and it's actually 1mm too! I'm after something with the possibility of finer than that though. Know anything about those extra tips that go with it? Otherwise it looks to me like I am gonna go for this 18W Antex one and buy a seperate 0.5mm tip, but that aint adjustable. Adjustable heatness sounds cool

Do you have a link where we could buy that wonder hardnrg?
I want one of those

by the time you imported it to canada you'd be paying a small fortune... maplin is uk only afaik...

$33.99 CAD
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Sea...5199&CatId=1802

34 $CAD ~= 15 quid

Not sure if they carry these in the UK but it's a nice soldering iron with a pretty good selection of tips down to .01". It's not exactly cheap (I paid $96.00 US) but it's worth every penny.

Weller WES51

thnx man

Wow if i had the extra dough, i'd get that one too fueler

That looks nice fueler! How did you manage to get it so cheap? They have it over here in the UK at http://www.rapidelectronics.co.uk/rkmain.a...60717&XPAGENO=1 but it's £200!!!

Maybe time to look on ebay

List price in the US is $130 but they can be found for under $100 and as low as $89.....try ebay maybe you can get lucky....as long as the freight doesn't kill you

EDIT: I didn't check your link before.....but you were looking at the wrong unit, a WSL is a digital soldering station....you don't need that....the WES51 is an analog station and it works great and still has tip sizes available down to .01" .....and it's cheaper....I found you a link in the UK here:WES51

lol oh right. Still £129 quid, quite alot! Had a quick look on ebay and couldn't find it, but then I was looking for that digital one and not the analog one!

I'm gonna go for that Antex iron and a 0.5mm bit I think. From what I hear the Antex one's are supposed to be pretty good too and it's quite cheap at £10 and I need a few other bits and pieces from the place I have seen it too so it's all very convenient

Heck that is cheap.....Let us know how it works out

heh I know! But it's just the iron, no fancy stuff like you got The one I have at the moment is some generic 30W thing. Cost me like.. £5... it's pretty nasty, but works (ish). I can't find any other tips for it as I don't know the make of it!!! I think this Antex one will be a little nicer to use, hopefully.

As soon as I get it I am going to be replacing the pots for my vdimm and vcore idle/load droop mod with it and mounting them on some stripboard, if I can, so I expect you'll see pictures of my amazing(ly bad) handiwork in a couple of days time. I'm hoping for a some vcore fluctuation improvement with these better quality pots but.. aint sure if i'll get it though. Both pots are cheapy things at the minute, single turn jobby.. and VERY sensitive. They seem to do nothing on the first half a turn and then it's like move it a fraction of a mm and the voltage goes up 0.1v Dodgyness!

Anyhow, rambling.. THANKS!!

lol... single turn?! are you crazy? an amoeba could take a stroll on your pot and the resistance would change... 18 and 24 turns are only a quid ya nutter!

hehe. they're like 66p actually, but mr uni man didn't have any and I needed a bit of funding for a soldering iron before I could place the order from mr rapid, otherwise 66p + 3 quid delivery... that's stupidly pointless don't you think?

But yeah, it's not like I am having much luck at all with anything lately. I just got an email from them saying my payment details have been declined. Dunno what the HELL that's about.

Also, I looked at my orders on their and there's two orders!! Same stuff, but one is £25 (the cost of the stuff without postage) and one is listed at £29 (the cost of the stuff WITH the postage). Dunno what to do I never got any emails with the order number of the £25 order on there, maybe they're gonna send me that without charging me (ha, yeah right!)

I think... it might well be time for me to go and hibernate forever. With a grenade up my nose. Someone donate me some of their good luck please (seriously.. please... i'm begging you!!!! all of you!)

Me i'm just hoping the one hardnrg showed me will do the trick and stop me from collecting all those good for nothing, except maybe my pistol grip one lol

well kobalt, the one i posted has the same dial and knob (and possibly same er, spring holdy thing) as mine, looks to be same spec, just different base... my one let me accomplish my volt-mod with relative ease:

you can get a halfway decent one at radioshack, .5 mm too and 1mm

Man i wouldn't try that even if i were to sand half of my tip off lol
I,m ordering the one on tiger next week

Loll refering to what you say in your blow up pic in the corner , it surely looks like it, the card itself looks like a 5/8 sheet of plywood lol

I know how small those SMD resistors are. I had to remove one and do a similar joint. Looks like the solder pad bit where you had to solder is around the same size You should hot glue gun it all though!! Hot glue guns are cool!

I'm in the UK, soooo radioshack = no no.