fried IC's?

[christobean]

my past few projects have been based off of lm386s, and i have been using the 40 watt setting on my soldering iron.  none of the builds have worked when they included an IC. what are the chances that they dont work because i fried the IC while soldering? sorry if this is a stupid question, back when i could still get stuff working, they all were based off of transistors, bazz fuss, electra distortion, etc.

[puretube]

use a socket...

[Coriolis]

Yep, what Puretube said. Plus, a 40-watt iron is probably a bit heavy for the finer things like ic's. Try something like a 25 watt maybe.

C

[ulysses]

i use a goot 13watt iron (CXR-30). superfine tip. man it kicks ass.

http://www.goot.co.jp/ENGLISH/catalog/INDUSTRIAL/CS_CXR_CXG/CXR.html

i tried with my standard 25watt iron the other day. it was like trying to cut steak with a spoon. i wondered how i soldered anything together previously. i guess im just spoilt now.

cheers
ulysses