Home Racing World

I am in the market for some kind of decent quality soldering equipment. I have just done a google and bay surf and am now thoroughly lost. Realistically what should I be looking at to cover the slot car world spectrum from soldering leads on motors, to jumpers on plastic track, to possibly building a brass chassis

Thanks
Randy

Randy,
Glad you brought this up as I am also in the market for a good soldering iron. I have had my eye on the Weller WLC100 that adjust from 5-40watts. I dont build brass chassis but I would like something better than the $5 iron I currently use for basic needs.

What I have gathered in my quest is it seems for soldering brass chassis more watts is better. I have been looking at 60watt soldering stations - and weighing the cost of that and brass sheet up against the cost of buying Penelope Pitlane laser cut brass and nickel silver chassis.

cheers
DM

I use everything. I still prefer my ancient Wen gun for some things, and I use a Weller (grandson of Wen), for wire connections, and I use a micro torch (butane) for chassis. Once in a while, I need the MAPP gas torch for something, too. I just put a tiny tip on it for those jobs. If I had to choose one, though, it would be the one I have that will do all these tasks, a lowly Radio Shack soldering station.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... CT2032236#
It isn't the most powerful or handiest (mine is a lot older than this one), but it is nearly a universal iron.

I was asked the other day what the brand of my fancy soldering station was.

The reply I stated was "None".

My soldering is all done with an Inland Studio Professional 100 watt soldering iron. You can find them for about $35 on the web.

I DO NOT PLUG MY IRON DIRECTILY INTO A POWER OUTLET. The amount of heat generated like this is way too much for just about anything slot car related.

My heat control unit is comprised of parts that you can buy at Home Depot, Lowes, ACE Hardware or other such stores. It is a square metal outlet box, a duplex outlet, an extenion cord and a light dimmer switch. On the duplex outlet, I separated the outlets by cutting the buss bar on the side of the outlet. Then I wired one outlet diretly to the non-plug end of the extension cord and then tot he ligth dimmer switch. The output of the light dimmer switch is wired to the other outlet.

This provides me with an extension cord for when I go and compete in commercial type slot races, also a controllable outlet to select the hear output of my soldering iron. My iron normally is set about mid way on the heat control. But if I need more heat, such as when I'm soldering to a piece of .064 x 1.000 brass stock, I have that ability.

By controlling the amount of heat, the tip will last much longer then letting it run 'wide open". The tip on my soldering iron, which is coming up on 3 years old, looks as good as the day I received my Inland "Studio Professional" 100 watt soldering iron.

You can buy different tips for your Inland soldering iron, but I find the standard 5/16 tip that comes with it to by quite satisfactory for any applications that I have ever encountered from soldering on lead wires to building brass and wire chassis.

Just my opinion of course.

Thank you very much for the response guys, you have been a great help. Marty you got my attention (as per usual), I'm going to give that a shot.

Thanks
Randy

Marty has reminded me of another iron I have. Its an Inland like his, and I use it strictly for stained glass caming.

This is a timely thread for me too.
I'm also looking to buy a soldering iron because the one I have now burns my hand.
(What do you want for free...? ) So now I'm finally going to get a proper one.
I was looking at the Weller's at Lowe's and the cool little butane torch with all the different tips.
I'll probably go with the simple one.

Hi Greg. I found the iron that Marty was talking about on the bay for $32.00 comes with a temp control unit.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/121034523641?ssP ... 1439.l2649

I priced a similar Weller and it came to over 2x the price of The Inland.

Randy

Thank you HRW you saved me again.

Randy