if I use an 80 watt soldering iron to remelt solder, would it stay melted for a longer time than if I used a 35 watt iron? I’m currently de-soldering some track and am using a 35 watt iron to melt it, then a “solder sucker” to remove the solder, but I also have an 80 watt iron with a chisel head and thought that might be better.
Also, what do you use to clean the sucker; and how often do you clean it?
A hotter iron will only melt the solder faster. It’ll cool just as fast as before. A chisel tip is good, as it’s mass slows the loss of heat. Small tips tend to cool very quick when touched to the work, making soldering/desoldering tricky. If the work is large, it can soak up a lot of heat quickly. The secret is to melt the solder quickly, and remove it quickly, before you damage something. Cleaning a solder sucker isn’t too hard. You should be able to push any solder out of the tip with the plunger. The plunger assembly should also come out of the body, so you can dump any solder out of there. Just clean the piston with a paper towel and maybe a little vaseline on the o-ring to maintain the seal, and you’re ready again.
To add to Betamax’s comments, the wattage of your soldering iron’s heat element will depend on the size of what you’re soldering. For example, for soldeing the drop wire to the side of code 100 rail, I’d recommend nothing bigger than a 50 watt iron. The bigger ones will heat up too much area and will start melting the ties. I’ve used anything from a 25 to a 45 watt iron for this successfully. Again, the choice of type (and size) of the tip will depend on what you’re soldering. Using the above example, the chisel tip would be your best bet. Press the tip of the chisel into the web of the rail right next to the wire, heat both of them, touch the solder to the area, then quickly remove the iron. (it should have taken you lnnger to read that than to actually do it, speed is important when working around plastics with such heat). A cone or pointed tip will be best for most printed circuit board work.
Desoldering is much like soldering. If the original joint requires a certain wattage iron then the desoldering of that joint will require the same iron. Also do not forget to FLUX the joint before DE soldering. This speeds up heat transfer and minimumizes damage to adjacent ties.
BB
A solder sucker may not always be necessary. Wipe the solder off with a soft dry cotton rag (old tee shirt). Apply heat until the solder turns liquid, remove the heat and wipe.
Frankly, solder suckers…well ummm suck. I use solder wick. Its a copper braid that wicks the solder away and leaves a much smoother finish. Don’t use the high wattage irons. Like they said, it will melt your ties. When desoldering, always add a little solder to the existing solder and then it will flow together making the desoldering job that much easier. It sounds crazy, but I’ve been soldering, desoldering proffessionally for 20 years.
Solder wick has a major drawback, it leaves a flux residue at the point where you unsoldered and this has to be removed because, regardless of some brand names, flux is corrosive. Solder wick is flux impregnated copper braid and requires more heat than simply reheating the joint as you would with a solder sucker. The Air Force did away with solder wick in the electronics shops back in the seventies, mainly because of these two problems.
I’ve tried the solder wick; and it doesn’t work. Oh; it removes the solder; but just the solder on the outside of the rail. The problem is, it doesn’t get the little bit of solder that nestles down between the rail & the joiner.