best soldering iron...?

**XERO** · 10-25-2008,07:42 AM

greets, i am going to try my hand at modding and need to know the best equipment to use and a online place to purchase.....many thankx

**MysTiCy** · 10-25-2008,12:34 PM

Weller WS-81 is best at price/quality, it has many available tips, and it heats up instantly up to 450C. What i checked on Google, u can get it from many places.
Price at lowest maybe 200

**malkent** · 12-07-2008,03:20 AM

If you have 300 to spare, I suggest Ersa I-Con.

http://i-tool.de/index.php?lang=en

**RabidWeezle** · 12-09-2008,07:02 AM

most people I know use a 15 watt iron with a thin, (replacable) grounded, pencil tip, rosin core 60/40 solder, small guage, a solder flux pen, solder wick and/or desoldering pump (in case you mess up and get solder making a bridge), a heat stand, a good hobby bench clamp (to hold your motherboard steady), a "third hand" (basically it's like a set of posable aligator clips and a magnifying glass) and a good anti-static wrist-strap that is properly grounded.

If you have never soldered before, check online for good tips and youtube videos of people soldering pcb's. It helped me alot.

Some of the biggest mistakes people make when they first start soldering:

Too much heat! (easily taken care of if you use a soldering station instead of just a soldering iron that plugs into a wall)

Unclean soldering surface/didn't use flux (If you aren't using flux, the oils from your fingers can make it hard for solder to flow.

Not Heating both parts being fused. For instance. When are you solder, you have to heat both the wire and the copper pad or whatever you are making a joint with.

Not being fast enough. The soldering iron should only be on the part for 3-4 seconds while you solder.

On most ps2's you apply a wire to a tiny surface mounted resistor or fuse, *do not use too much pressure at all, and you don't need to use gobs of solder. Just a little too much pressure with the soldering iron will pop that baby right off in a heartbeat.

There's a million other things you need to think about aswell, but what I tell everyone is find an old motherboard to a pc or junked out piece of "newer" electronics and train yourself on that before you go ahead and fry your beloved console. And don't burn your house down in the process

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