It's been my experience that this model runs cool. Even at max cal, it doesn't get quite hot enough to match the numbers on the dial. Ignoring those numbers, it gets hot enough for electronics. I used it to repair the instrument cluster on my caravan. I use it at work instead of the one provided, mostly soldering pins or extending cables.
I use this iron a lot, I don't go by the dial, I go by how the iron is melting the solder, i never did calibrate it because of that practice, this is a good tool - thanks for subscribing!
Got one today $40 iron saved me $369 on a replacement lift chair remote. First time soldering to a bored had to do 8 very fine wires spaced maybe 32nd of inch apart man that’s tedious work
I tip my hat to you for pulling off a job like that successfully, especially as it's your first time soldering , or at least soldering to a printed circuit board. 👍👏👏
It seems odd that they wouldn't put all the information about the soldering iron in the manual. Like the LED status (that a big omission), but watching/observing it on the first use I know that solid means heating up, and flashing means it reached it's temp (simple observation can answer many questions). The tips that it comes with are pretty bad (and all three are the same), it's pretty much a must to get quality tips for this for the best results. It would seem that the omission of what the LED status means is a big one for many people (people trying to use it before it's ready) it would have became clear of what the LED status means just by watching it, but still should have been included in the manual. I do like the fact you can calibrate it.
HF manuals are a challenge at times, which was one of the reasons I started doing these videos, so many people were having problems figuring out the tools - thanks for subscribing!
May I ask what 900m tips you could recommend as quality or what type I should look for? Or is there a specific design/material I should be looking for on Amazon that the tips be made of? I just bought one of these for some tech work I'll be performing because the maintenance contract requires that I be able to solder on site if needed. I'd like to have the best tool for the job when I need it most.
@@aragon2235 pretty much anything would be better than the tips that come with this iron. (you want a selection of different types of tips). The ones I bought are from Plusivo , it comes with 12 tips for $10 on Amazon, and they work well. Just make sure you get a brass sponge tip cleaner so that you can keep the tips in good working order (wet the tip with fresh solder, a nice blob of solder on the tip and stab it a few times into the brass sponge to refreshen the tip before you turn the iron off after use, or after a while of setting idle, in reality you shouldn't leave the iron on without using it anyways, it'll burn up the tip).
@@madmax2069 when you say not to let it sit for too long without use, how long is too long? I just bought this same soldering iron and don't want to make the same mistakes with this one as my old one. Im sorta new to soldering so I wouldn't say im fast at it, sometimes I let it sit for a min before moving onto the next solder joint.
@@Shooter_POS_Mcgavin that depends on the person, but for me, if the iron has been idle for a few minutes I put some fresh solder into the tip of the iron and stab it into the brass tip cleaner a few times before using it again (doing this recoats the tip and keeps it fresh and keeps the tip from burning up). I turn mine off if it's going to be longer than 5 minutes before I need to use it again (they're pretty quick to heat back up). If you let it sit idle for too long it'll ruin/burn the tip to where it won't accept any solder (the tip will turn dull have a burned look and any solder you try to apply to it will just fall off without sticking to the tip). Just apply some fresh solder into the tip and stab it into the tip cleaner a few times and turn it off until you need to use it again. Even if you're using it (not letting it sit idle) it's still a good ideal to every once in a while apply a little fresh solder to the tip and stab it into the brass tip cleaner to keep the tip fresh and continue on. You do this because when you're soldering components to a board the tip sees very little solder and slowly starts dulling/burning up and eventually only the very end of the tip remains shiny, and eventually that starts dulling as well. There are ways to revive a soldering tip, but it's best to just avoid having to do it in the first place. Yeah you'll go through a little bit more solder (but it's not really much more), but you'll know the tip is always ready and in good health when you need to use it again. Overkill? maybe, but after I started doing this I haven't ever burned a tip up. You just want to keep that tip shiny (shiny = good and healthy, Dull = bad and burned up), many people blow through the tips and buy more like candy because they allow the tip to burn up. When looking at a brand new unused tip you'll see that the tip will have a coating on it, it'll look slightly different from the rest of the tip, that's the part you don't want to dull/burn, that's the part you want to keep shiny.
So is the red led supposed to stay on continuously when it reaches temp, or what? I have one of these and have been totally disappointed with it! The tips won’t “tin” like the many irons I’ve had over the years. Kind of like putting water on a ducks back, it lust runs off! Trying to solder two 16 ga. stranded wires together was near impossible even with the dial in the highest position! After much wrangling I finally got it done, but I’m not convinced that it was a quality job! I definitely wouldn’t buy or recommend it to anyone again!
while adjusting the temperature, the led is solid while it is heating up, then flashing once its at temperature -- several reasons the tip won't tin - most common is the coating burned off the tip, there is a paste you can get to dip the tip in that will fix the coating being burned off - lots of sources, search google for solding iron restoration - or a variation, can also be caused by not using rosin core solder, optimal temperature is dependent on the solder being used, I ordered solder recently and it seems to have a much higher melting temperature and very little rosin content, that higher temperature will burn up the tips faster, especially if not seasoned and kept tined - I ordered 2 dozen solder tips (900M type), and if they burn up, I switch and restore them later - in summary - too much heat is usually involved in the tip not melting solder - and I agree the soldering job had a non-optimal finish - This is now my main iron and I use it alot, and I'm very happy with it, I did have to get used to the termperatures needed for each type of solder I use, and it tends to be a little higher than I'm used too - Thanks for subscribing!
@@snapwholeharborfreightreviews My “users manual”, (they are guilty of false advertising calling it that! Ha!) says nothing whatsoever about that light or the calibrate screw! The tips would not take solder from the first time I used them, regardless of the heat setting. After watching your video, I turned the calibrate screw clockwise all the way, took the tip out and sanded it with 320 sandpaper, reinstalled it and fluxed it before turning it on. Kind of unusual that when it heated up it took solder, but after doing some test stranded wire splices it once again would not stay tinned. I’ve got two Wall Lenk soldering irons, a 20 or 30 watt, and an 80 watt super toaster, both over 30 years old, and always ready to go! But I really like the “soldering station” concept better, and that’s why I’m giving myself time to fall in love in love with it! Kind of like one of those stomach turning Hallmark Channel movies! Ha!
I'm in same boat where the tips seem terrible. I've been using a $5 Walmart iron until now and I've done just fine. Tips with this immediately become shot. Tried working up temp slowly. Was able to do a ps1 modchip with $5 iron but wanted something a little nicer and now I can't solder 2 stranded wires together with this. Maybe its me though.
Nice video do you know if this unit will do wood burning I have one and would like to do some small wood burning I tried the soldering tip with no luck. Also my soldering tip has a 1/8” before it touches the end of the bulb heating element should it be flush or is an air gap normal, I’m new to this style soldering station.
this is advertised as working for wood buring, but you need a tip replacement that accepts screw in tips - HF sells a $8 wood burner that has the screw in tips, if you have the tip replacement - you can check amazon or aliexpress for the screw in tip converter - if you go to amazon/aliexpress, you will find woodburns that look just like this soldering iron - but the $8 wood burns actually allows better control because the business end is closer to your hand (not as long), so shorter is better for control - I have both kinds, and I've usd this one for woodburning - thanks for subscriber!
600-650F for soldering iron. Does flashing mean it's hot, or almost hot? I couldn't find anything in the manual, but just assumed it was hitting temp when flashing. They might have mentioned it in the manual.
I have used this for many projects, and have always been happy with the results, I am constantly building projects, so it gets constant use, thanks for subscribing!
all of my videos are shot in 4K, with the long side the bottom of the video - try turning your phone sideways and the format shoud match the format the videos were shot in, that might help a little - I'm still working on doing more closeups, that might be a short term solution - Thanks for subscribing!
Used it for the first time today, the light never went solid, flashed the whole time. Waited like 15+ minutes and lost my patience and used it how I could.
I give the tip type in the video - 900M - there are 17 different types of tips - recommend you buy the 900M-B or 900M-I - search www.aliexpress.com or www.amazon.com for '900M soldering tips' - recommend you buy a 10 pack - watch for a new video this weekend on how to renew burned up tips - thanks for subscribing!