What Soldering iron station to get ??

[Texan]

What soldering iron would you recommend getting for chipping none plug and play cars. I have no experience in soldering and would appreciate any guidance, I've been looking at the Weller WE1010NA Digital Soldering Station online. Any thoughts, thanks.

[MrFlippant]

That's a great iron, but overkill for just soldering in chips.
A WLC100 is fine. You don't need a lot of wattage.

If you plan on doing some more advanced soldering, like metal chassis, then something more robust would be good.

[NCSS]

I am not much for soldering, but my Xytronic 258 does the job. It’s relatively inexpensive, has variable heat and is lightweight. I got it during my Arduino phase, so it might be right for soldering chips.

[RichD]

I put alight dimmer and an outlet into a project box and plug my soldering iron into that.

[dinglebery]

Texan - if you have the money for that unit, then by all means get it - it's a fantastic manufacturer and great product that should last you a very long time. An old Weller is what I've been using for the past 20 or so years.

[HO RacePro]

For simple electronic soldering a very cheap, basic 25 or 35 watt soldering iron is all you really need.

Keep the tip clean and tinned. A wire brush is good for cleaning. Clean the tip while it is hot. Then apply flux to the hot tip and immediately coat it with solder. The tip should be shiny.

If the tip is really dirty you can clean it with a file. Once you see bare metal do that flux and solder thing. Shiny is the objective.

Tin the wire/contacts before you attempt to join them -- makes the job worlds easier. Flux then solder. Again, make them shiny.

A drop of solder on the end of the iron helps transfer heat, and is usually all the solder you need to make the joint.

Buy some STAY BRITE brand soldering flux. It is a liquid flux, and the best flux I have ever used.

Soldering is a simple and very valuable skill. Not hard to learn. You just need to practice a bit. Clean, shiny and hot does the trick. If it isn't shiny you probably didn't apply enough heat.

Ed Bianchi