good soldering iron for ignition wires

I've been having a hell of a time lately with getting ignition wires to heat up enough to draw the solder in. I have the non-adjustable Weller station (blue color) that is getting pretty old and I think its dropping out on me. So I'm looking to pick up a new one. I have my Power Probe butane that works great for small gauge wires so my focus is on the ignition wires. Most of my installs are indoors so I would prefer corded for better temp control. What temp. and wattage is best for the heavier wires? Km looking at the Weller wes51 fully adjustable but wanted some thoughts before dropping $90 on a soldering station that won't work how I need it. From what I can find it goes up to 45 watts and has a temp control of 350* - 850*.

Opinions? Since its for the business I don't mind spending a little more for a quality station that will last me a while.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

Kenny, I use a Weller gun for indoor use, red with light.
In the field I use a Weller Pyropen or Pyropen mini, all three hot enough to do ignition wires.
To me what you use is good for circuit board and bench work rather than heavy duty car work.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Yea, I mainly got the PowerProbe Butane for the small gauge wiring; I never really expected it to do well with ignition wires. I've had the Weller station since Circuit City closed... when the liquidation went through they told us to throw away / get rid of all non-inventory. So the soldering station went with me.

I'll have to look into the pyropen. I used to use the Weller gun and I hated it... the tips were always way to bulky for me... and didn't seem to last very long at all.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

Those tighteners on the bit ends constantly need doing up, otherwise forget it.
Never got on with the Portasol device although lots of people like them.
And never use lighter gas, it ruins Wellers, use the purified butane.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I was doing a mobile on Monday, 28f plus wind chill, in East Anglia, the wind straight off Siberia across the Baltic, Denmark Holland and me with no hills to stop it.
All the brass monkeys were queuing at the welders, the Pyropens just gave up trying to ignite.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Hi,
Weller SP40, 40 watt 1/4" chisel tip. Won't hurt to remove the tip and coat the portion that inserts into the element with anti-seize. Helps tip replacement as they do wear.
Mark

I like that idea, probably much better than trying to run the Weller Gun through a small inverter.
Except the gun comes up to heat fast, thus no current drain whilst waiting, remember with me everything is based on mobile working.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

One thing I have to think about too is that I will probably be doing some minor circuit board wiring here and there (mainly for a motorcycle flash-to-open garage door opener). So I still need something that I can use on those.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

Sp40 tends to not be enough for me when doing heavy gauge ignition wires

Also, for some unknown reason, contrary to my other comments, the Weller Pyropen is about $30 cheaper in the UK.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

It runs just a little higher than the Weller station I was looking at. But if it can really do the heavy gauge ignition wires without having to hold it on them for 20+ minutes then I wouldn't mind spending a little extra. The only downside is that I'm screwed if I ever run out of the butane unless I also pick up a corded iron.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

Come on Kenny, bet you have spare Stanley knives, Philips and Torx bits don't you?
Weller etc. purified butane in a can about $5, heck even the UK equivalent to Radio Shack carries them.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

the problem you have with the weller station not heating up is because the connector that goes to the pen gets loose over time and the contacts wear out. i think you can replace just the cord and have it working like new.

otherwise i use a big radio shack gun, 250W on high i think and 120W on low, makes short work of heavy ignition wires.

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Do you know the model of that radio shack gun?


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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205

For the handfull of installs I've done, I've used my Napa 80w chisle tip soldering iron I bought for $40. It's nearly identical to the Weller SP80L. It heats up 12ga ignition wires quick and easily. No more melting the insulation off ignition wires before the copper gets hot enough to flow the solder. :-) For all the smaller wires(18-22ga) i use a cheap-o Wal-mart 40w iron.

Since I will likely be doing some sensitive soldering, I opted to go with a radio shack digital adjustable station. It was a little pricey, but the easy adjustability will make it extremely useful. I tested it out at about 3/4 power 700*f) and it had no problem with ignition wires.

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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205