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conical tip on soldering iron

J

john

Jan 1, 1970
0
I must have lived a sheltered life because onmy Antex soldering iron I
have always used a standard chisel tip.

Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Jan 1, 1970
0
I must have lived a sheltered life because onmy Antex soldering iron
I have always used a standard chisel tip.
Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?

It's cheap to make.

Broadly speaking, a chisel tip delivers more heat to the joint you're
soldering, simply because it has a larger area.
 
J

john

Jan 1, 1970
0
Antex do a vast variety of tips for different uses. The standard
one is just that - it should be ok for the most common things.


Yes, used the standard tip for many years.

The point asking about is this:

"Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?"
 
E

Ecnerwal

Jan 1, 1970
0
john said:
I must have lived a sheltered life because onmy Antex soldering iron I
have always used a standard chisel tip.

Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?

In the not cheap realm ;-) I use a pointy conical tip (actually 1/64"
radius, IIRC) on a 60W TC iron for working on SMD boards - with
magnification, I can get in there and hit one pin on fine-pitched
packages. Still works fine on bigger components if lined up correctly,
so it's not a constant need to switch tips. Lots of power is available
if needed, but it doesn't cook.

As for the cheapies with no temperature control, I don't have anything
good to say about them. Junk is junk.
 
M

Michael

Jan 1, 1970
0
john said:
I must have lived a sheltered life because onmy Antex soldering iron I
have always used a standard chisel tip.

Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?

I usually prefer my iron that has a chisel tip, because it is thermo-controlled, its handle is more
comfortable, and cord is more flexible (so stays out of my way). I use a different iron, that has a
conical tip, when space around the joint(s) is limited and the large, unused part of a chisel tip -
protruding out into space - could get too close to things I don't want to melt. Sometimes the point
of a chisel wants to roll off a joint (DEsoldering operation) and the conical tip provides easier
control. Quite a bit of your tip choice depends on preference, but, as another poster pointed out,
more tip in contact with the joint can put more heat into it.
 
A

Arfa Daily

Jan 1, 1970
0
john said:
I must have lived a sheltered life because onmy Antex soldering iron I
have always used a standard chisel tip.

Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?

I think that to some extent, it's a case of what you get used to. The
'standard' 700 degree bit that most people use on the old Weller TCP
Magnastat irons - and bear in mind that for many years these were the
workhorse iron of the electronics industry, and are still to be found in
many workshops - is conical. I have always found that a conical tip is much
better on high density boards, as a flat or chisel tip can easily heat two
joints at once if you don't position it carefully. If you are soldering
under magnification, as is sometimes required with even fairly 'ordinary'
boards, I find that it is easier to see what you are doing, with a small
conical tip.

I don't find that I have any problem getting enough heat into joints with
this type of tip. If your iron is set for the right temperature for the
solder being used, it won't be a problem. If any joint won't flow
satisfactorily, then the iron that you're using is either not powerful
enough, or a conical tip simply isn't appropriate for that particular type
of joint. Those of us professionally involved in bench soldering, usually
keep two or even three irons, plus desoldering equipment, at the ready, and
just reach for the 'right' one for the job, without thinking about it.

Obviously, there's a lot of generalisations there, and for hobbyist or
occasional use, the 'traditional' or standard Antex-style chisel bit, is
probably the most versatile general-use type. One downside of conical tips,
is that the plating tends to fail fairly quickly, so they don't last as long
as chisel tips. We had quite a debate about this on here a few months back,
and we all pretty much agreed that the conical Weller TCP tips used to last
a lot longer than they do now. One interesting document came up in that
debate, which explained about the dreaded lead-free solder leaching iron
from the tip plating and accelerating wear which, when coupled with the more
aggressive fluxes used in this stuff, leads to much shorter tip life.

Arfa
 
N

N_Cook

Jan 1, 1970
0
Lostgallifreyan said:
They're awesome for DIY surface mount parts. A bright light, a conical tip
and a temperature controlled iron do wonders, especially if you can get
0.27mm thick solder. What looks impossible becomes almost easy.

For what it's worth, some years back I tried a Weller TCP (Magnastat) iron. I
never looked at an Antex again. The TCP iron cost more, but I still have it
10 years later and although I can get spares for it I haven't had to yet. I
used to have to replace Antex irons far too often, it's a false economy.
Their elements are way too fragile.

Ditto, recommend magnastat, and conical tips.
I rarely need to use very fine solder, and when I do, I flatten some 1 mm
solder in a "set of rolls" and then slice the flattened solder with a razor
blade for an odd inch or so of 1/3mm or so solder.
 
N

N_Cook

Jan 1, 1970
0
msg said:
N_Cook wrote:



What is a "set of rolls" (denizen of the U.S. FWIW)? I need to find a sort
of small mangle (compressed hardened rollers) to "de-husk" raw oats a little
at a time. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Michael

For my translator file
http://www.divdev.fsnet.co.uk/tool_terms.htm
What are "set of rolls" called in USA ?
A proper engineering set pic here
http://www.homeandworkshop.co.uk/891489.jpg
minus handle it seems

I recently bought one of these , not for pasta,
http://www.verynice2.com/images/prod/PASTA-590.jpg
but for the 2 sets of intermeshed roller "guillotine" cutters for cutting
bicycle and motor bike inner-tube down to neat strips for rubber drive band
making (then standard "bean slicing" to cut them down narrower). 2mm ones at
top of pic ( although 4mm for cutting rubber for some odd reason) and 6.5mm
below.
You can only neatly bean slice once you have neat parallel sided strips of
rubber

I've not tried the plain rolls section of the pasta m/c but it is all metal
construction and a neat hidden innternal mechanism, I've not thought how it
works, for varying the gap in 10 lock-down steps and still allow
contra-rotation of the steel rolls.
Overall quite heavy , beefier than needed for pasta anyway. For thick rubber
use the make/break joint between the 2 main sections, is too weak. You have
to swap the handle between sections, and for this use mount the slicing
section in a vice or something.
If I can find something like oats I will try it.

Otherwise for solder (tighter sub-mm gap) this is my set of homemade set of
rolls on my tips file
http://www.divdev.fsnet.co.uk/tips3.htm
 
N

N_Cook

Jan 1, 1970
0
msg said:
N_Cook wrote:



What is a "set of rolls" (denizen of the U.S. FWIW)? I need to find a sort
of small mangle (compressed hardened rollers) to "de-husk" raw oats a little
at a time. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Michael


No cereals, pulses or dried beans , so tried some dried cloves which is
probably more of a test. 5 crushed cloves and 5 whole for comparison.
Required stepped repeated crushing , at setting 9,6,3 and then 1 but oats
would probably go through in one.

http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/cloves.jpg

Over engineered for damp pasta.
 
S

Smitty Two

Jan 1, 1970
0
john said:
I must have lived a sheltered life because onmy Antex soldering iron I
have always used a standard chisel tip.

Recently I saw a lot of cheap soldering irons in the stores with a
conical tip. I can't think I'd ever want to use that shape but someone
must be doing so. What use does a concial tip have for
electrical/electronic work?

We've used conical tips almost exclusively in 25 years of production
soldering. The biggest advantage to conical over spade in that
environment is speed: You don't have to think about tip rotational
orientation.
 
A

Arfa Daily

Jan 1, 1970
0
JosephKK said:
In this case "a set of rolls" means a group of solder spools mounted
for convenient work access.

I'm not at all sure that is the case ...

Arfa
 

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