What Wattage Soldering Iron...

TSJMajesty

TSJMajesty

Fractal Fanatic
...should I tell my family I'd like for Christmas? I'll use it to connect speaker wire to input jacks, and maybe one day I might need it to re-seat or disconnect electronic parts.
TIA!
 
TSJMajesty said:
...should I tell my family I'd like for Christmas? I'll use it to connect speaker wire to input jacks, and maybe one day I might need it to re-seat or disconnect electronic parts.
TIA!
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Heck yea go for it I told my wife about a fender Elite Stratocaster I was thinking about getting and showed her it in a local music shop and sweet water. And it showed up for Christmas 🎄 ;)
 
It doesn't take a lot of wattage to solder speaker wire to input jacks because the parts are small and won't soak up a lot of heat before the solder is melted. 30 watts should be sufficient for that or for building your own guitar and pedal-board cables.

You'll need more when you're trying to attach ground wires to potentiometer backs or humbucker covers because you want to heat them fast and get the iron removed. Too much heat can ruin a volume or tone pot or pickup bobbin and that typically occurs with too small of a soldering iron because it lacks the mass to heat the metal back quickly.
 
Freds55 said:
Heck yea go for it I told my wife about a fender Elite Stratocaster I was thinking about getting and showed her it in a local music shop and sweet water. And it showed up for Christmas 🎄 ;)
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Haha, I got that covered!
I get a pretty generous gift each year from my mother, so I asked for part of that to go towards the 20th Majesty in my profile pic. I already have the guitar, so it was an early Christmas gift!
 
Jambi said:
I couple people I know, including myself, have the Weller WE1010NA with great success. Sounds like a good fit for the work you’re planning on doing with it.
Amazon product ASIN B077JDGY1J
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That iron will be on my next Amazon order; I've been looking at a new station and have decided on that one as well.

A 70W temperature controlled station will get you through all sorts of soldering jobs; from bigger speaker lugs to fine circuit board work.

Getting the ET 6-piece tip set would be worth it too IMO.
 
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Having an adjustable thermostat and interchangeable tips is very nice. I used a couple of pencil types, 15w and 40w, when starting out but upgraded to the Hakko 936 when I started doing more mods and pickup swaps. It's been a great tool for many, many years- definitely spend the money and get a soldering station vs pencil iron.
 
That Weller is well regarded, probably can't go wrong. If I may offer an alternative, I've been using this one (Hakko FX888D) for 8 years straight and it works as well as when I got it. Super adjustable, can handle pretty much anything I throw at it. Done a bunch of guitar rewiring, building computer keyboards, you name it.
 
for the longest time I was using one of those cheap Radio Shack irons and was never getting good results, then I bought this station from stewmac https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-too...r-electronics/solomon-sl-30-soldering-station and wow did everything change. it just goes to show if you have the proper tools jobs go a lot easier and come out correct more often. I also started out using the pencil tips and switched to using a chisel tip I feel like it conducts the heat a little better and im not on the part as long.
 
That Weller is nice. I’ve got the similar Elenco SL30A, and can say the adjustable temp and swappable tips are a big step up from the old soldering pencil types. It’ll make the job a lot easier, and the result a lot nicer! Get a solder sucker too, they make removal much cleaner.
 
I'm all for getting a soldering gun for Christmas. Super handy to have around. I'd go with these on speaker
wires, though. No soldering needed. :)


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