[PiccoloNamek]

I am about to embark on my first DIY audio project; the modification of some panasonic microphone capsules for use in binaural recording.

You can't see it well in the image, but near the area marked in purple there is a gold piece that needs to be soldered to one of the main contacts. Unfortunately my current iron is completely useless for the job. The area I am working in is less than 1mm wide, and I need an easy to handle iron that has needle-sharp tips available for it, and good heat control.

Any recommendations?

 

[diredesire]

what's your budget? If money is no object, I find metcal irons are very easy to handle

 

[roggom]

This is just me, but I would try some bailing wire or similar wrapped around the tip of my iron and use the end to solder with. It is from the hip but who want to drop hundreds. If you dont have a visual think of a foot of solder wrapped around your finger and you use the end to apply solder. If this is for your project, then great. If for a customer, then utilize the proper procedure, blah blah blah.....

 

[Fixz8]

Ditto on the Metcal units.

Another option might be to see if a fellow head-fier would be willing to do the solder-job for you and then mail it back. It's cheaper than a new iron for sure.

 

[rimrocks]

These Aoyue tips seem to work OK and they're cheap. You'll need to find a supplier in the US - or just ask Aoyue.

With such fine tips you'll never have a good control of the temp - you need to run them as hot as you can just to get some decent heat at the tip. So you might even end up running two soldering guns - one with a fine tip for soldering and one with a more normal tip for de-soldering etc.

Aoyue Conical Type Soldering Iron Tips.

 

[mono]

I doubt you need a different iron to get this done, just a different technique. With the right technique, even heating a nail with a stove burner could be used to solder. The trick is putting down some flux on the wire and pad, then if the wire won't stay still on the pad, take the back side of a small knife blade to hold it in place and once the solder is heated the wire will sink into it and be plated because it has the flux on it.

If you want a suggestion anyway, a Hakko 936 is popular, cost effective for further soldering jobs, and has a fair selection of tips including tiny conical ones. There are lots of cheaper options too, even something junky with a fine tip might be enough to just solder a small number of parts. For example this.


I do similar to rimrocks, on one station I have two wands with a different tip I keep in each so I'm not fiddling around with changing hot tips or waiting for the iron to cool down to continue on with a different sized or shaped soldering job.

 

[AudioCats]

I think the main problem is visual, your current iron probably will still work great if you have 10X magnification so you can see the spot better. Got a microscope laying around?

 

[mape00]

mono's got it right. The magic ingrediant, in this case, is flux. Use lots of it. And then remember to clean up, especially if it isn't no-clean flux... The problem is rarely the size of the tip. I've managed to solder .6 x .3 mm resistors with a regular sized tip. Your problem will be keeping everything still. A good pair of tweezers (some people like wooden tweezers or toothpicks to hold wires down, because they conduct less heat) and a good working environment (and a steady hand) is probably required. I've read that people who install modchips like to hotglue wire before soldering, to keep it in place. Maybe that'd work here too.

 

[funch]

The CS-1A is what I've used for a few years. Nice, and cheap. Check out
the last tip.

Circuit Specialists Inc. - CSI Deluxe Station w/Analog Display (CSI-STATION1A)

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mape00 /img/forum/go_quote.gif mono's got it right. The magic ingrediant, in this case, is flux. Use lots of it. And then remember to clean up, especially if it isn't no-clean flux... The problem is rarely the size of the tip. I've managed to solder .6 x .3 mm resistors with a regular sized tip. Your problem will be keeping everything still. A good pair of tweezers (some people like wooden tweezers or toothpicks to hold wires down, because they conduct less heat) and a good working environment (and a steady hand) is probably required. I've read that people who install modchips like to hotglue wire before soldering, to keep it in place. Maybe that'd work here too.

I've done some modchips, Ummm hot glue, wished I'd thought of that!

 

[mono]

A piece of tape can also be used to hold down wire, sometimes that is better than hot glue because it doesn't leave a blob of glue behind and if the wire needs repositioned it's easier to pull tape up and reapply it.

"Helping Hands" are also handy to hold a wire in place, but are far too large for this microphone soldering job, as are glue and tape.

 

[Uncle Erik]

I've owned both Hakko and Weller irons (currently Hakko) and both have interchangeable tips for fine work. I'd suggest looking through the tips they offer to see if they have one to suit your needs, and then which iron it would work with.

 

[Omega]

I tape the leads to a 1x4 piece of wood or small (sample sized) piece of granite tile. Soldering properly secured pieces is pretty easy, regardless of size.

I also recently picked up an old Metcal station, which is a breeze to use. If you can find a cheap used one (mine was <$50 on Ebay), you want a 600 degree fine pitched conical tip. The STTC-026 (sharp 30 degree bent, 0.4 mm) works well for me. Metcal irons have interchangeable tips for ~$20, which can be easily hot-swapped.