Point me to the right soldering iron please!!!!!

Lozboy

30w should be plenty.I take it your putting flux on the join before removing the wire.

Sporky

lovestrat74 said:

Reigniting this post as I have an 30W (i think) and I am struggling to remove wires from my volume pot on my Tele.  Is it the iron or the tip (do tips "expire?") or both?

Tips do wear out eventually. Using a bit of tip cleaner can help, as can cleaning with a brass shavings pad instead of a sponge. For the backs of pots you want a BIG tip to transfer the heat as quickly as possible.

lovestrat74 said:

How long on average would you expect to heat the pot to melt the solder and remove the wires?

I was raised with the 300/3 rule - no hotter than 300C, no contact for more than 3 seconds.

Some non-lead solders require the temperature to be rather higher than that, but the 3 second rule is a good one.

lovestrat74

Lozboy said:

30w should be plenty.I take it your putting flux on the join before removing the wire.

Just tinning the iron and heating the pot to melt the existing solder.  Waiting for the solder to melt so I can use the sucker 

lovestrat74

Sporky said:

lovestrat74 said:

Reigniting this post as I have an 30W (i think) and I am struggling to remove wires from my volume pot on my Tele.  Is it the iron or the tip (do tips "expire?") or both?

Tips do wear out eventually. Using a bit of tip cleaner can help, as can cleaning with a brass shavings pad instead of a sponge. For the backs of pots you want a BIG tip to transfer the heat as quickly as possible.

lovestrat74 said:

How long on average would you expect to heat the pot to melt the solder and remove the wires?

I was raised with the 300/3 rule - no hotter than 300C, no contact for more than 3 seconds.

Some non-lead solders require the temperature to be rather higher than that, but the 3 second rule is a good one.

3 secs!! Man I am doing something wrong...

bbill335

Sporky said:

lovestrat74 said:

Reigniting this post as I have an 30W (i think) and I am struggling to remove wires from my volume pot on my Tele.  Is it the iron or the tip (do tips "expire?") or both?

Tips do wear out eventually. Using a bit of tip cleaner can help, as can cleaning with a brass shavings pad instead of a sponge. For the backs of pots you want a BIG tip to transfer the heat as quickly as possible.

Yep, I use a tip like these for guitar guts and haven't had any problems (other than user error!). Thanks again to @Gagaryn for his guidance on the issue 

sweave

Get a Metcal sp200 off eBay - heats up very quickly and uses Curie point to control temp - different tips will heat to different temps. Serious piece of kit and if you are patient you can get a bargain.

streethawk

lovestrat74 said:

Reigniting this post as I have an 30W (i think) and I am struggling to remove wires from my volume pot on my Tele.  Is it the iron or the tip (do tips "expire?") or both?  How long on average would you expect to heat the pot to melt the solder and remove the wires?

Buy the biggest (flat surface) tip you can find, maybe 6mm, and feed some new solder into the existing solder that you're trying to melt.