Two good posts below, HOWEVER...


Guns, in general, should not be used for PL259s -- though W4ZCB's method is
a good one. I have used this technique in the past, but don't
recallspecificlly on what, just that is was a massive solderiang job. I
also have a device, resistance solderer, that designed to do this and is
used for doing dental soldering...and now, PL259s. This type of tool puts
the full power available into the stuff being soldered. If it is enough to
quickly heat the object, then it works.

In its normal mode. a gun puts the power into the whole gun "wire" and this
must then transfer heat to the work through conduction - usually via a very
small contact point which is an inefficent thermal conveyor. The remaining
gun "wire" is accepting the vase bulk of the power and, therefore it is
wasted (un-used to heat the work).

Soldering things like PL259 generally requires thermal capacity, not just
temperature. "Guns" are not well suited for this work. This is
accomplished with a LARGE tip. You need to get in, heat quickly and get out
quickly. The large tip allows you to heat, in a shirt time, the _work_,
which also has a large thermal mass, without cooling the tip appreciably.
To do a good job, you should be able to heat the shell in less than
something like 2 seconds, apply solder, let it flow and get out in a total
of something line 5-6 seconds.

I think the gun tip-wires turn red-hot, back from the tip, because you are
using the PL259 to keep the real "tip" cool and continuing to run the high
current through the tip WAY too long. The power needed to maintain the
tip's temperature is not enough alone. It is not really the wattage of the
heater, but the thermal capacity of the large tip that gives the amount of
and rate of heat transfer needed.

73, Steve, K.9,D;C'I


A trick demonstrated to me by a friend in New Mexico. (I use "N"'s and it
doesn't bother me, but he was putting a 259 on a piece of coax and managed
to amaze me.) You use a soldering gun, but with NO tip at all! He pushed the
gun sans tip into the ring where the holes for the solder to the braid are,
and pulled the trigger. In very little time, the I*I*R losses had the 259
hot enough to melt solder and he flowed it into the braid. Gets the heat
into the right place, Give it a try.

W4ZCB


wrote in message
ups.com...
Guys, electronics technology and densities have changed quite a bit
over the past 40 or so years.

My first two soldering tools back in the 1950s were a 100-Watt American
Beauty soldering iron, and a Weller Soldering Gun. By around 1965, both
were too large and bulky to do precision work on the by then modern
electronic, so I purchased a 37-Watt pencil iron (an Ungar Woodburner
we called it at that time) which served my needs up to roughly 1989,
when I added a miniature, variable temperature soldering iron to my
collection which remains in use today.

That original Weller Soldering Gun fell into disuse at least 25 years
ago, except for emergency use in panic situation to light cigarettes,
although I do take note of the fact that it was very useful for making
quick-fix field repairs on the older, low-density, vacuum tube
electronics, tinning the ends of power cords, etc.

I continue to use the 100-Watt American Beauty through this day, but
only for relatively heavy job like soldering the braid on RG-8U cables
to the connectors. Works fine on that application, particularly since
its temperature tends to remain rather constant so it doesn't either
oxidize most solders or destroy the item that the cable is being
attached to.

Arguably, most of the soldering I do today is performed by my
temperature controlled iron, generally at temperature settings of 625
or 720 degrees depending on the particular solder that I am using. Once
or twice a year do I resort resort to the American Beauty. (It was a
gift from my dad back in 1955 and remains in occasional use through
this day.)

Even years back, I simply can't remember any soldering iron tip that
was pure copper (except for some of those antique iron that you heated
on your gas stove). Soldering iron tips are usually plated with an iron
coating, and for very good reason. The iron coating slow the pitting
and eventual disolution of the tip in molten solder, which in turn
extends the life of the tip.

Kindest regards, Harry C.

p.s., I now recall that the earliest Weller Soldering Gun tips were
bare copper, which required you to replace them at the rate of about 1
tip per week in regular daily use. Those sold today are iron coated.
Still, today I know of no one using Weller Soldering Guns for
electronics, however, for the arts and crafts they can be very useful.