pcb soldering temp

[txbluesboy]

OK, I just got a Weller WESD51. What do you guys set the temp at for soldering radial caps to a pcb board. I worry about overheating the caps during soldering, especially to a large ground buss that pulls the heat away from the solder pad. To low a temp and you have to heat the part to long, to high a temp--well you know. Advice appreciated.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Leaded or lead free solder? ca 300C for 60/40 Sn/Pb is usually hot enough.
Temperature is one thing but for soldering components with some mass to a large pad on a PCB you need a bigger soldering tip than is supplied as standard. Something like a 3/32" to 3/16" wide screwdriver shape. It will allow you make a good solder joint quickly without damaging the PCB.

[txbluesboy]

I am using 60/40 SnPb. The solder mask on these circuit boards doesn't leave enough room for a larger tip unfortunately. I don't really have much/any pcb experience, I'm assuming you cant heat the joint partially through the mask.

[Kazooman]

I am using 60/40 SnPb. The solder mask on these circuit boards doesn't leave enough room for a larger tip unfortunately. I don't really have much/any pcb experience, I'm assuming you cant heat the joint partially through the mask.

I am not sure just what you mean by the "solder mask". Can you post a picture to show what you are referring to?

I am no expert, but I have the same soldering station and I usually run it a 700 degrees F. That's about 370 centigrade. I am in the school of "
high heat, get in and out fast" as opposed to "low heat - longer heating time".

I do not believe that I have ever fried ANY component with my soldering technique. I do use a heat sink clip on transistors and use sockets for ICs.

[LeftyStrat]

Same here. I have the same station, and 700 F just seems like the sweet spot for most uses.

[txbluesboy]

Thank you, I was using it at about 650 and that seemed to be working OK. It still seemed to take a little long however. I'll try it at 700.

[selloutrr]

710 get in get out and move on.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Forgive me guys, but could it be that this soldering technique gave US made PCB based amps a bad reputation

[txbluesboy]

So Aleksander, you prefer using a lower temp but longer heat time? At 600 degrees it was taking about 10 seconds to get the solder to flow.

[selloutrr]

Forgive me guys, but could it be that this soldering technique gave US made PCB based amps a bad reputation

No it was missed holes during wave soldering, and corners cut in material and design paths that gave the PCB a bad name.

[VacuumVoodoo]

So Aleksander, you prefer using a lower temp but longer heat time? At 600 degrees it was taking about 10 seconds to get the solder to flow.

Correct technique, temperature and since I'm ROHS and lead free my station is at 350C but I also use 3 different bits for different pad sizes. I'm never over 4 secs per solder joint.
I do get a laugh watching a guy fighting an octal tube socket with needle sized bit.

http://www.newark.com/pdfs/techarticles ... Basics.pdf
http://www.technick.net/public/code/cp_ ... _to_solder
http://www.solder.net/technical/tips.asp

As you can see lead free solder joints can be made to look nice but this didn't pass Q-control. Observe solder floating in onto copper trace under the solder mask on the left. This joint was disqualified.
It's a photo from lead free hand soldering course I took in 2007 when ROHS became law.
BTW Every year we have a mil std hand soldering championships and every year female soldering technicians win. Very cool IYAM.

[IMG:400:300]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c149/ ... bfree1.jpg[/img]

[Aurora]

Aleksander is completely right. It is not only getting a good solder stration, like the Wellers, but also having a few corrrect size bits for various jobs.
I use the later 80W Wellers at work, even for SMD, but I also have quite a fair selection of bits, and a specially angled handle which I use for very small SMDs under microscope. I usually set the temp around 310-320 for small components, but I also sometimes crank it up to 380-390 for larger, heat-tolerant joints.
Soldering on large ground plane PCB joints, that doesn't have thermal reliefs, can be challenging. I also have a Metcal at work, which really excels at this kind of jobs, given it's HF based technology. For the more puny joints, I really do prefer the Wellers.