Soldering station settings

[Braxtone]

Hey yall. I'm getting ramped up to build my first amp. I just purchased a Weller wlc100 40w soldering station and have been practicing with #22 wire just twisting and soldering them together. Just starting but all my joints are now nice and shiny and sturdy and not cloudy and not lose at all. Now to my question: What should I set my dial to when I start to solder the amp components to the eyelet board? If any body could give me some help I would appreciate it.

[WesKuhnley]

anywhere between 700F and 800F is probably fine. Tips wear faster when the iron is hotter, but some large mass joints (grounds etc) are easier to work with a hotter iron.

[stratman_el84]

I also have a WC-100 station. The dial is not calibrated in temperature, only in numbers from 1 to 5. Typically I'll set it just a bit over 3 (a little past halfway or 'noon') for tagboard/turretboard work. This should suffice for most things you'll be doing in an amp where a pencil-type iron is appropriate.

For larger connections like grounds to brass plates or large ground busses, use a 'gun' type iron rather than the pencil. For this type work I use a Weller D-550 dual-heat 200-260 watt.

If you happen to be using the brass plate type grounding scheme, it's a very good idea to plan where you'll be attaching wires to it and either attach ground wires to the plate slightly longer than you'll need, or at the least, create a solder 'puddle' on the plate to make it easier to solder to without excessive heating *before* installing it in the chassis. Once it's in the chassis, the chassis will act as a heat-sink and make soldering difficult. Clean the spot on the plate first with a piece of Scotchbrite.

Cheers!

Strat

[Structo]

My station doesn't have a temp readout and that is fine with me.

You just want the temp to be high enough to readily melt the solder in a few seconds.

Always prime the tip and touch it to the joint first to heat the joint then feed in a little solder.

Also where possible, make a good mechanical connection by wrapping or hooking the wire through an eyelet or pot lug and squeezing it with needle nose pliers. Solder should not be relied upon for holding heavy components in place.

Solder jobs that are bigger such as to the back of pots where more heat is required will call for the temp to be turned up.

Be very careful if using a pistol type gun, they emit big magnetic waves that can degauss (de-magnitise) a pickup.

We used to use the solder guns to degauss tv picture tubes.

[stratman_el84]

Structo, I advise highly against soldering to the back of pots if at all possible. They're just far too easy to damage that way, especially current-production units. Also, if talking about pots on the front panel of an amp, soldering to the back makes replacement a real pain.

I typically will use a bare-copper buss wire (usually 14-gauge) grounded at one end to a power transformer mounting bolt and use short pieces of smaller-gauge insulated solid copper wire from the lugs of the pots and from the tagboard/turretboard ground points. This typically results in a very quiet amp where pot replacement is easy and quick.

Cheers!

Strat