Is this soldering station suitable for SMD work?

T

timthetortoise

MADE OF SANDALWOOD
Was given this for my birthday and while it's no Weller, it's much better than what I currently have (a piece of shit Radioshack iron).
Sort of curious about two things
1. Will this iron be fine for lead solder? I've got so much of it, it'd seem a shame to spring for lead-free and waste what I already have.
2. Is it going to be suitable, with the correct tips, for SMD work? I can get hoof tips for it, but the temperature is the only thing that worries me. Should I be keeping it at full blast while doing SMD or closer to 350-400° C?
Do note I haven't really done any SMD work and am researching it at the moment, but just figured I'd get some opinions here in the meanwhile. Thanks in advance!
 
What soldering station? Anyway, SMT is more about the tip size than temp. Temp control is actually less critical for SMT because the amount of solder is smaller and the leads are tiny, so it doesn't drop the tip temperature as much. DO NOT use full blast, you will lift components off the PCB as you try to solder them, or you'll just damage the components. SMT components have less thermal resistance so they are damaged by heat much faster than through-hole parts. So set the appropriate temperature to melt the solder and don't go higher. You have to be no slower and no hotter than the component's lead temperature maximum rating.

It's also nice to have a thin pencil. I use a 1/32" screwdriver tip. Wear magnifiers!

My technique: flux pen on the PCB, get the smallest size flathead screwdriver from an eyeglass screwdriver set. Get a dab of flux on the screwdriver, pick up the part, place it on PCB. Give it a gentle push to keep it in place. After stuffing the whole PCB, get a dab of solder on your iron, pick up the screwdriver and use it to keep the component from moving. Solder one pin of the component. Repeat with all other components.

Put down the screwdriver, get the iron and solder as normal, and solder all other pins on each component. You have to be fast, especially with tiny components, because too much heat will melt the already soldered pins and you'll pick up the component on the iron. Finally, go back and resolder all of those first pins. Deflux and you're done.

It's important to keep the very tip of your iron primed with solder. I use a dry cleaning system (steel wool), but I normally only wipe off the iron on the rubber edge until it gets really bad. The steel wool will clean the tip, but it will also push the solder up the tip. So after you do the wool, cover the tip with solder and wipe it on the rubber edge, then you're ready to go back to work.

Finally, use narrow gauge solder. If the solder you have is fat stuff, save that for cables and buy something smaller.
 
Of course I'd forget the link
http://www.blackjacksolderwerks.com/bk3000lf.html

Thanks for the tips. I do have lots of narrow gauge solder, but none of it is lead free which is one of the things I'm unclear about regarding this station. Don't really see how the tips would have a problem dealing with solder containing lead, or if they're just trying to push people to start moving to lead-free solder.
 
timthetortoise said:
Of course I'd forget the link
http://www.blackjacksolderwerks.com/bk3000lf.html

Thanks for the tips. I do have lots of narrow gauge solder, but none of it is lead free which is one of the things I'm unclear about regarding this station. Don't really see how the tips would have a problem dealing with solder containing lead, or if they're just trying to push people to start moving to lead-free solder.
Click to expand...

You can use whatever solder you like, it doesn't matter. Leaded means lower tip temperature, probably better for a SMT newb. I use no-clean lead-free, which is a bitch, but I like it.

That pencil looks OK, I didn't see where you could get different tips. They say it's ready for lead-free because it can get hot enough for lead-free, will work fine with leaded.
 
Ah, gotcha.
Found tips at $9.50 a pop, so they're I guess middle of the road in terms of price. One more thing, if I start with lead solder and move to lead-free, do I have to buy new tips or will I be able to reuse them?
Thanks again for answering my questions.
 
timthetortoise said:
Ah, gotcha.
Found tips at $9.50 a pop, so they're I guess middle of the road in terms of price. One more thing, if I start with lead solder and move to lead-free, do I have to buy new tips or will I be able to reuse them?
Thanks again for answering my questions.
Click to expand...

You can switch from lead to no-lead, going the other way you need to make sure the tip is absolutely clean, otherwise you'd have lead-free solder on your tip that won't melt at the lower temp.

Tips wear out anyway, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Just for fun, here's a board stuffed & ready to solder--0603, a couple of 0805 and 1210, SOT-23, SOD-123. PCB size is 75mm x 55mm.
 
Oh lord, that looks intense.
Can't wait to get some practice. Exchanging the Blackjack for a Weller WESD-51, I think it's going to work out great.
 
timthetortoise said:
Oh lord, that looks intense.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a bit too much, as you can see there are thru-hole capacitors stacked on top of the SMT parts. Space was at a premium in this design. There are about 50 bottom-side components too, around 200 total (including thru-hole)

Can't wait to get some practice. Exchanging the Blackjack for a Weller WESD-51, I think it's going to work out great.
Click to expand...

That's what I use. Get the ETH tip. The tiniest stuff you would want ETS, but conical tips hold solder poorly. If I can't solder it with ETH, I refuse to use it!
 
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