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What are the ideal iron temps for your typical solder? I have an old Weller system and I feel like my results are way too inconsistent.
Check the documentation for your soldering station, if your soldering station doesn't have any documentation you can go with the melting point of the solder itself plus some overhead.
But as illustrated below, it can get a little complicated, if you're doing a lot of soldering with the same solder you'll experiment and figure out what's good for you
Ideally you want to use the lowest temperature you can get away with, using too much temperature can potentially shorten the lifespan of your soldering tips, and potentially damage the printed circuit board.
Get a testing board, any old board will do, and do some soldering and desoldering at different temperatures.
https://kb.hakkousa.com/KnowledgebaseArticle10297.aspx
350°C has been my sweet spot with my hakko soldering station
the 888 dial set to 12-o-clock or one-o-clock lol
Probably because it is a "dumb iron" with no thermal control. As soon as it touches anything it cools way down. Nowadays fortunately, cartridge tip irons are cheap if you're willing to buy from China. Cartridge tips have the heating element and temp probe built directly into the tip, heat up and adjust extremely fast to thermal loads.
As mentioned, you need the pad to be hot for the solder to wick onto it. There is missing info in step 1. Step 1 should say to have a slightly wet iron (solder on the iron). You used this molten solder as the heat transfer medium. Hold the iron so the wet solder on it is touching the pad and lead. This gives more surface area for the heat to travel from the iron to the pad. A dry iron touching a pad will have poor thermal connection, so the pad will take a long time to heat up.
I think an apt comparison is touching hot stuff with a wet glove. With a dry glove, the heat has to conduct through the fabric before heating your hand. With a wet glove, the heat is conducting through the water and burning your hand. The solder, like the water in the wet glove, is a bridge for the iron to transfer heat efficiently to the pad.
I think a lot of hobby soldering guides really neglect the idea of heat transfer and thermal mass.
Have you tried eutectic solder? (63/37 tin/lead)