averydonovan
Headphoneus Supremus
For interconnects I really enjoy working with the Cardas Quadeutectic stuff. It really is incredibly easy to use. But for smaller stuff I stick with RadioShack's 62/36/2 stuff. It is thin enough for surface-mount stuff and easy enough to work with overall and readily available, too. I definitely prefer eutectic solder over standard 60/40 stuff. Once I tried it I didn't go back.
And how do you guys go through tips so fast? My 2+ year old cheapie 15W iron is still on its original tip and works beautifully and my 1 1/2 year old 40W iron is also on its original tip. Every time I plug in my irons to use them I tin them, scrape them off, and then tin them again and keep them tinned throughout using them. I don't use special tip tinner and cleaner, I just use a pair of scissors to scrape them and solder to tin them. They are showing some wear but work fine still, making quite solid joints, despite the numerous times I have left them on for an hour without even using them. I likely don't solder nearly as often as some here likely do, but I still get plenty of use out of my irons.
And how do you guys go through tips so fast? My 2+ year old cheapie 15W iron is still on its original tip and works beautifully and my 1 1/2 year old 40W iron is also on its original tip. Every time I plug in my irons to use them I tin them, scrape them off, and then tin them again and keep them tinned throughout using them. I don't use special tip tinner and cleaner, I just use a pair of scissors to scrape them and solder to tin them. They are showing some wear but work fine still, making quite solid joints, despite the numerous times I have left them on for an hour without even using them. I likely don't solder nearly as often as some here likely do, but I still get plenty of use out of my irons.
