Daven, ___and all readers,

A 40 watts iron does not have a big enough tip to accumulate enough heat for soldering 1/8" dia landing gear wires particularly if three wires need solderingtogether.

The iron shown in my pictures has a tip of 3/8" dia and a length of 4".

I also have a soldering gun Weller model 8200 dual heat (100 watts / 140 watts) for general quick usage but the tip does not have the needed volume for heat accumulation to solder properly 2 and much less 3 big landing gear or cabane wires being 1/8"dia. Due to the small mass of such a gun tip it has to have a duty cycle of 1 min on and 4 min off to avoid damaging the tip.

I also have a 30 watts iron with a small 1/8"dia finepointed tip, about 3" long to do printed circuit board work.

If there is not enough mass (volume of material) in a soldering tip, its temperature can drop very rapidly and if the material being soldered and the melted solder does not QUICKLY reach sufficient temperature hotter than 450 *F or whatever the solder you use needs it may result in a crystalized soldered joint.

You can detect a crystalized joint by its surface finish that look dull (like frosted).
A good joint finishes by looking shiny and smooth surfaced.

Your 40 watts iron is fine for soldering small connectors but may be marginal for big wires larger than18 gauge if they have to be soldered to large heat sinking locations.

My 2 cents wortha nickel ___

Zor

P.S.: A good 100 watts iron will last you a lifetime.
Mine illustrated was bought when I was a student in electronics at technical school when I was 14 years old. I have a new spare tip that I never yet used.

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