How hot should the solodering iron tip be?

[PRR]

> Humans are weird sometimes. I have a feeling alpacas would not complain about that if they used pedals

Alpacas don't need pedals. They make some very strange sounds.

Stranger even than a 1950 John Deere Diesel. (HUGE 2-cylinder HIGH compression Diesel. At the upper limit of practical electric-start, and batteries can't be trusted. Instead you electric-start (or rope-pull) a 2-cyl gasoline engine, rev it like a mad lawnmower, eaaase the clutch to the Diesel WAAAAAAHHHHH-whu-whu-whu-whu-whump-whump whump whump whump.

(I was just at the Fair.)

> I found some old PCBs from some worthless electronics

GREAT idea. (What I wuz gonna suggest.) Go ahead and cook stuff recklessly.

Except for older cheap PCB (such as used in 1970s pedals), most electronics will NOT be hurt by any reasonably quick soldering.

I favor R.G.'s 2-second rule. If nothing is soft after 1 second, then I'm not really In-Contact. If it aint working, figure out why. However 10 or 20 seconds may not hurt. I've had power transistors run hot enough to melt the solder on their legs for many minutes, still working.

In my limited experience with thermostats and numbers, 700F is on the cool side.

I have much more experience with good dumb irons. I'm less fond of the 750F (rated idle) than of the 850F (but 850F is a very big hammer).

[Projectile]

The old Weller WTCPT stations that were pretty much the industry standard for many years (based on the fact that every shop I've been in seems to have them) were set to stay regulated at 700F (370C) from the factory. You could get tips that bumped that temperature up to 800F, but they shipped with the 700 degree tip. My logic is that if Weller sold thousands of these irons and developed their solid reputation based around an iron that was regulated at 700F, then that temperature is good enough for me, so I set my iron to 700F as the basic setting and adjust from there. Sometimes I'll drop it down to 600 if I'm doing delicate work and worried about overheating. Sometimes I'll bump it up if I'm trying to solder to a chassis.

I used to have a cheap 15 watt rat shack iron and it would overheat traces all the time, leading to solder pads pulling free from the board. It was a nightmare for doing any serious desoldering work. I haven't had this problem since I switched to an iron regulated at 700F (Hakko 936), yet it's hot enough to work very fast. YMMV.

[Henry89789]

              >Go ahead and cook stuff recklessly.

    No. Not recklessly. This is going to be a controlled scientific experiment. The results at each temperature will be timed and recorded meticulously. How long does it take for the pcb to show obvious signs of damage at each temperature? I am going to use both 60/40 and 63/37 and record the temp at which each flows at 2 seconds.  My Craftsman multimeter can take temperatures. I am going to see if there is any difference between what the meter shows and what the soldering station shows for temperature. I am going to see if there is a lag between the soldering station temp reading and the meter temp reading of the tip. I 'm going to photograph it all. Maybe a you tube video. I'm going to write a paper on it  and submit it for publication.  Hmm. I need to get a job and a life! (I would say LOL but I'm not. I think I am actually serious about this. Did you all see the Nightly Business Report story about the guy who made millions repairing Iphones at $80 a pop? Hmmm!)

[defaced]

Don't forget that tip size will affect the results.  Larger tips have greater mass, thus greater heat capacity, thus will hold their temperature better during soldering.  Think of big tips like big electrolytic caps.  More capacitance, better voltage regulation.  More mass, better temperature regulation.