Finding a good soldering iron....

I don't think its a question of heat. If your iron is a simple plug in iron they run pretty hot. Too hot for my tastes actually. What you need is to apply flux to your wires and solder connections. Flux is an acid (safe to handle) that cleans all the oils and dirt off the wire. The solder will flow right into the wire. You can get flux pens which are good for board work and tins of flux which are nice for tinning wires. Really the only benefit to a nice iron is precise temperature control for working around heat sensitive components. I like to run my irons a little cool, that keeps the solder on the tip of the iron so it won't drip off.

This is my personal iron. Pretty happy with it.

http://www.velleman.co.uk/contents/en-uk/p557_vtssc40n.html

 

Flux can be acid and is used for plumbing. Keep acid flux well away from electronic compoments, it will cause long term corrosion problems. I have seen transistors with no leads.

Cleanliness is essential to get solder to run. The solder tends to run towards the heat so heat the component and feed cored solder onto the component as soon as it is hot. You only need anough solder on the iron to get a good thermal connection.

 

To me, because you said you used several soldering irons and have the same problem:
1) Are the soldering iron tips clean? Do they need to be cleaned and re-tinned for better transfer of heat?
2) You didn't specify the gauge of the wire you're trying to solder, or what you're trying to solder the wire to.
*steve* gave you a pretty good tutorial on the issues. Most soldering irons are fine for simple work. IF you are
trying to solder a heavy gauge wire and/or a large contact area, you need a higher wattage iron.
I do electronics work, and have relatively low-wattage irons for that.
Those low-wattage irons are useless when I try to solder 10 gauge grounding cables on my cars. I have to
use a higher wattage iron for that kind of work.
Can you give us a little information about what it is that you're having a hard time soldering?
Is this simple bench repair work, or are you trying to solder ground planes on a 1000 watt power supplies?

 

All soldering irons work. Some better for some uses, some better for others. Skills and experience are more questionable than the item itself.
$1 irons or hundred$ irons have a place. Focus on your skills.

To solder properly, the pad, the pin and the solder should be at the same heat level. It is not matter of just melting solder.

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The op had trouble with a blob of solder on the top of a presumably cold component. If the solder is applied to a cooler part and it melts, then it should migrate towards hotter areas where the viscosity and surface tension are more suitable.

Perhaps one factor is that he may be using lead free solder with a high melting point rather than 60Sn/40Pb eutectic.

 

Any Iron Should work, Some are just better than others.
But Soldering Takes Practise!

You might read my How to Solder Article.
http://chemelec.com/Soldering/Soldering.htm

 

No. 60/40 solder is for plumbing and it remains pasty so it can be molded while it cools. I hate trying to connect electronic things with 60/40 solder because if the joint is moved a little while it is cooling then it forms a bad connection. 63/37 solder is eutectic for electronics and a good connection is made immediately

 

Will this slowly degrade my electronics?

http://www.frys.com/product/3008709...-qFh0N2c65EG3UMrbz5G0rO6_6usjORDNXhoCqjPw_wcB

Its not for plumbing I bought it at Fry's in the soldering section.

 

I have some Name brand 60/40 solder and it is horrible. 63/37 solder is much better. Look up eutectic solder in Google.

 

My 63/37 solder has a flux core so I have never needed and I have never used separate flux except when I soldered together some copper water pipes with a butane torch, 60/40 solder and acid flux from a can.

I have never seen a Fry's store so I looked it up. They sell many products. I buy electronic parts from a store that sells electronic parts, not products. Fry's sells the 63/37 flux core solder that I recently bought at an electronic parts store.

 

Personally I Like the Kester 331 Solder.
This is a 63/37 with a Water Based Flux.
Just wash the Assembled board under a Warm or Hot Water To to remove all the flux residue.

 

60Sn/40Pb is very close to the eutectic. It may contain a smidgeon of other metals such as copper. What is the accuracy of your analysis?

60Pb/40Sn is the pasty plumber's solder.

I use Multicore solder, not sure if it is Savbit (with copper), the label has gone.

 

For years I used Ersin 63/37 multicore (British?) and it worked very well and I liked the aroma of its flux. I was running out so I bought Kester 60/40 but I do not like its behaviour. Now I have MG Chemicals 63/37 rosin core but its flux does not work as well as the Ersin.

 

Thanks for your offer but you are on the other side of the world (between Beijing and Ronne Ice Shelf?) from me.
It looks like you are in Australia, MATE!