Talk:Soldering gun/Archive 1

Points

"Soldering guns are used where more heat is needed than from pencil-style soldering irons."

The ones I've used all produced less heat (Weller & similar irons). The rated power is far higher, but the short duty cycle sees them achieve lower working temps than irons.

"Temperature in the soldering gun is regulated manually by holding the button until the solder melts, and then releasing it. When the solder is about to start solidifying, the button is pressed again, and so on. An experienced worker develops the skill to regulate the temperature according to need."

It seems optimistic to call that regulation, its a crude control in practice, and is one of the downsides of the gun.

"A disadvantage of a soldering gun is that the copper wire loop slowly dissolves in the solder and has to be regularly replaced. "

... same as a soldering iron, so not a disadvantage.

"Soldering guns produce too much heat for joints on printed circuit boards."

Not so. The prime issue is one of inadequate controllability to get good quality joints. Solder gun joints are usable in small quantity, but a PCB with 100+ joints demands more reliable better soldered joints, and of course using a low duty cycle soldering device with wide temp swings on 100+ joints isn't very practical. 82.31.207.100 (talk) 03:45, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I have deleted the previous sentence as I have used a soldering gun many times on a PCB and found it to be much quicker and easier than a soldering iron. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 18:51, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Please provide a citation of a PC board soldering instruction manual that recommends or allows use of a soldering gun. Guns are for wires or heavy tag strips, not for PC board use. I've used a hot-air gun to strip parts from a board, but I don't recommend it either. --Wtshymanski (talk) 18:59, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Having worked in the electronics industry since the 1970s, I can emphatically say that I've never seen a technician or assembly line worker using a soldering gun. They may be practical for hobbyists, electricians and automotive mechanics, but due to their weight, bulk, lack of temperature control and need to wait for the tip to heat up, they're mostly useless for work on printed circuits. —Quicksilver^{T @} 14:51, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Proposed merge

This article should be merged with Soldering iron. The German Wikipedia, for example, has no problem discussing soldering irons and soldering guns in the same article. I've been using both styles for decades professionally and I consider them minor variations on the same idea. —Quicksilver^{T @} 20:35, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

This was mooted a while ago with no action, so the tag was removed. They are different tools and have different history and somewhat different applications - we've certainly got space to have two articles here. --Wtshymanski (talk) 20:28, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Out of the question for SMD or any sensitive microelectronics!

The idea that you can put a thin wire, bent into a rectangular loop, to solder multiple pins of a surface mounted integrated circuit, is ridiculous.

Whoever added this text is only speculating and didn't read the top of the article where it says how this device works: it sends a large current through the tip.

This means that the loop of wire has an AC voltage across it.

You're putting the pins of that IC at various points of this voltage drop.

A gun like this is only good for mechanical bonds, or very large passive components, like soldering a thick ground wire to a metal object (where neither the ground wire, nor the metal object, are harmed by any voltage).

192.139.122.42 (talk) 00:04, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

I took it out, though I think the main problem is total lack of temperature control, not the voltage drop across a millimetre of copper tip. Back in the vacuum tube days, soldering guns had their uses. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:38, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Why too hot for printed circuit boards?

As a new comer who had never heard of a soldering gun before I saw this paragraph: "Soldering guns operate at too high a temperature for joints on printed circuit boards. The heavy magnetic field produced by the tip can attract and hold small ferrous metal pieces (screws, etc.)." It states that the temperature is too hot for a PCB. However I'd be interested as to why this is? Can a soldering gun not match a soldering iron's temperature? The second sentence seems to be totally unrelated? 80.7.27.189 (talk) 21:08, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Probably more "too much heat" rather than "too hot", though the effect is the same; a gun doesn't regulate temperture at its tip, so it's easy to provide so much heat (by holding down the trigger) that the glue holding copper to the board melts. This isn't restricted to soldering guns, either; the same problem would show up if you used a 250 watt tinsmiths soldering iron on a printed circuit board. --Wtshymanski (talk) 18:16, 18 March 2013 (UTC)