To make life a little easier, I would recommend a 25W. About US$8 at Radio Shack. Funny N. Au Group Electronics, http://www.AuElectronics.com ________________________________ From: Lee Jones To: piclist@mit.edu Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2008 7:50:11 PM Subject: Re: [EE] Soldering Iron > I've found no clear answer to this question, but, what wattage > of a soldering iron should I get? As high as possible but not more than you need. :-) > People recommended to get a temperature controlled iron but those > tend to be very expensive. You can spend the money on a temperature controlled soldering iron or you can spend the money replacing components & rework. It's much harder to do good work with poor tools. I learned to solder with a cheap iron -- it was hard. Then I bought a Weller 60W temperature controlled iron -- soldering became much easier and resulted in better joints. Same iron has been in use for ~30 years -- works fine (with an occassional replacement tip). > I'm only going to be soldering soic chips, through hole stuff > and small stuff like that Just where temperature control is even more important. As the size of the parts and PC board traces dimminish, the ability of the component or adhesive (holds trace to board) to tolerate any excess energy is reduced due to the reduction in thermal mass, so an over temperature condition occurs more rapidly leading to damage or outright failure of the part(s). > - not welding pipes. Technically, you can't weld with a soldering iron because it does not have sufficient energy output to cause the metals at the joint to melt and fuse together. What you probably mean is soldering or brazing pipe joints for common liquid delivery -- i.e. water pipes. In that case a powerfull iron or small propane & air torch is used as the energy needed is high but temperature control is tolerant (hot enough to activate the flux and melt the joint compound but anything under the melting temperature of the pipe metal is pretty much OK). Lee Jones -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist