I used to feel the same regarding temperature adjustment, but with the newer high wattage PID controlled irons I haven't found it necessary to mess with temperature much at all, even though my main iron is adjustable. My go-to is an Ersa iCon-1, which peaks at 150W. It has never failed to wet a joint out nearly instantly with the correct tip. The Metcal is pretty much the same from what I hear. These days with the better irons correct tip geometry/size is more critical than temp adjustment IMO, and the Metcal has that covered in spades. If you end up really wanting to change temp, it's as easy as sliding out the lower temp tip and sliding back in the high temp tip.
--Eric
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
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-------- Original message --------From: Mark Goldberg <marklgoldberg@...> Date: 7/28/18 12:31 AM (GMT-06:00) To:
[email protected] Subject: Re: Wow Radio Shack desoldering Iron Best review ever, Re: [TekScopes] 466-464 stray wire
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 10:03 PM, stefan_trethan <stefan_trethan@...>
wrote:
I see they still use the RF tips where you can't adjust the temperature.
That has always been a deal breaker for me (I adjust the temperature
quite a lot) but I think for desoldering it would be fine.
The tips come in different temperatures and lots of different shapes and
sizes. You select the tip with the size and shape that matches the work and
with the temperature you want. They have so much better heat conduction and
temperature control than most irons that you don't need to jack up the
temperature to solder big items. The tip delivers as much heat as needed to
keep the temperature up. The temperature control is right at the tip rather
than down the iron so it works pretty well. Try it if you get a chance and
you probably will like it.
Regards,
Mark
