Brads Electronic Projects Forum

I thought this soldering iron tip is good enough to work with Surface Mount Solering but the tutorials say I should use an iron with 50 watts and the iron it is used for is 30 Watt. I'm not sure other than they may want the solder to stay hot before it forms?

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=9538

If I can get away with it, it would be a cheap solution to SMS (with pitfalls).

After studying it some more, they say that a screwdriver or chizel size chip holds more solder and they are using a 1/32 inch tip.

Unfortunately the link didnt work but I can certainly say that a chisel tip is DEFINITELY what you want to use when soldering surface mount components.

I guess the key thing is that you need to get enough heat into both the pad and the component. Since the chisel tip is both flat and wide, it makes it ideal.

oh yeah, and microscopes help also

I use an itty-bitty pencil iron with a sharp tip for things like chip resistors and capacitors and SOT-23 transistors and diodes, but a 3mm-wide chisel tip for the ICs. You want it to cover several leads at once. After tacking a couple of corners down with good alignment, you go down the side and put a lot of solder on, with bridges everywhere, then hold the board vertically and slowly go from top to bottom with the tip, making all the excess solder come off on the tip. After a little practice, it's quick, leaves a uniform amount of solder on each joint, and doesn't take any microscopic equipment.