New soldering iron, questions

Bought a new soldering iron as my old one died a month ago. It's a soldering station with a little display. First, omg it warms up fast. I thought it was broken or I was reading it wrong, but 0-300 took about five seconds.

I've not had one with variable heat before, so I'm a little unsure what temperature to set it for for normal soldering. What are sensible settings you would use daily?

... 300-350degC for solder containing lead, until 400 for lead-free ones -- depends on the wire diameter and 'thermal mass' of the pads ...

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Viktor
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I use 300 to 320 for leaded solder, and a little higher (but no more than 350) for unleaded.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Perfect thanks that will get me going

Huh... I may have to revisit my heat setting choice. I just got my first regulated soldering station not too long ago and wasn't very impressed with it's performance over a standard iron. I always used the biggest iron I could fit into the space I needed, typically a 20W to 30W with a filed down tip. Wasn't until I turned my heat setting up to 370°F that I was happy with how the new iron worked - using standard 60/40 solder. I found with the lower setting that I had to hold the iron at the joint longer than I was comfortable with to get a nice joint. Maybe my solder is crap?

Do you really mean 370F, or do you mean 370C ?

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Oops. Yes I mean 370°C.

3 to 5 seconds are entirely fine for a solder joint. Given that most components are made for surviving soldering in a hot air oven it became almost impossible to break them by overheating with an iron.

If your solder melts but doesn't flow, it's more likely that your board needs better cleaning. Or you have solder with not sufficient flux inside, there are ones with 1%, 2% and 3% flux embedded. I prefer 3%, but 2% is also usable.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY