why do you need your solering iron to heat up immediatly? just wait 2 mins. my buddy is an ee who runs a repair shop and he uses a weller iron. the tips are so nice and easy to work with. it takes time to heat up but once it does its totally reliable.

um the tip of my new iron dosnt melt solder any more ive try wiping it off bit somthing is blocking it up

i got the iron now! its a mac tools St 120, its awsome it heats completely in like 20 seconds and also has a torch end, and an end for adding shrink wrap. i dunno how much it cost though, my bro got it for me to share wit him. im kinda afraid of burnin myself on it tho..

Beware of the butane soldering irons. I've had one for ten years, and it gets FAR TOO HOT for working on Bit pcbs, unless you have mad quick soldering skills. I could probably light my fireplace with mine. It aint no 15 watt jobber!!!

Well, even if i had my 15 watt pen I would still completely trash my pcb board :D

lol i was lookin for a pen but i didnt see any :(

you guys are seriously making soldering sound like open heart surgery.

its not that difficult. take an old broken stero or vcr and rip stuff apart and reattach wires and all kindsa stuff or get creative and make something dumb.

I know soldering isnt hard, i do it all the time. my hands are just waaay to shaky to hold the iron on long enough without snaping off other wires.

yeah im 11 and im really shacky

then rest your hand with the iron on the table and hold the thing you are soldering to the iron.

is it common for there to me liquid stuff around the solder when u solder on a battery

ya

yeah that orange looking gooie crap? lol ive seen that alot also

yo hog, open heart surgery is overrated.:p

are you saying "lead-free" solder is still toxic? I just wanna confirm this cuz "lead-free" would seem misleading.