mattnin

I consider myself good at soldering. I have a 15W iron to do small electronics without any problems whatsoever. I have repaired XBOXs, computers, and assembled many circuits... so I decided to give it a shot making some 6 cell 3800 mah packs.

My first attempt was using a radio shack 100W solder gun. I gotta say this method bombs. Yea, the gun gets red hot, enough to melt solder, but the battery sucks all the heat out of the gun and fast. I don't know how anyone can make a battery pack using a solder gun without making a huge mess. The gun gets hot quickly, but cannot hold heat and makes crap of a good solder joint.

My second attempt was using a 40W spade solder iron with a ceramic tip. I gotta say, these irons are the tools of choice. It is a bit more expensive than the solder gun, but well worth it. I wish I would have just picked up the spade first.

The tip retains its temperature and stays hotter than a 100W solder guns tip even when applying solder to the battery. Using the solder iron, I was able to make a good connection to the battery in about 5 seconds whereas with the solder gun, I never once got a good solder joint. I used a very small amount of solder to pre-tin the battery using the spade. That was impossible to do with the solder gun, it didn't heat the battery terminal quickly or hot enough. And when I was able to tin the battery using the solder gun, it was a huge blob of solder, and not clean like and a very thin film using the spade.

People, save yourself alot of headache and get a good solder iron if you plan on making your own battery packs. Forget the solder gun. Run to your local RC racetrack and see what they are all using. Chances are, you will not find a single solder gun there, but lots of 40-50W irons with the spade and a ceramic tip.

Dawman

My Feedback: (33)

Soldering guns aren`t made to solder something as big as a battery like the ones we use for rc. As you found out they don`t hold the temperature efficiently when making contact . I have always used a iron that has a big tip on it. The faster you can make the connection the better it is for the battery .

RCP57

My Feedback: (25)

I have a friend that uses a tack welder, talk about quick. I don't know if it is a bad idea or not but he has been using the tack welder for some time and has never had a problem.

mclintock

My Feedback: (3)

Now that you mention it, I can't think of what a soldering gun is for? Repairs to roofing foil, like flashing? Stained glass? Jewlry??
They don't work for plumbing or electronics..

I too have always just used a big tip on a 40w iron for batteries.

mattnin

I was actually reading in these forums about someone using a solder gun and not having any problems. And they said the hotter the better, so I figured there isn't anything hotter than a 100W solder gun. Was I wrong!

Yea, I am using a big flat tip 40W iron and I love it. I gotta solder up another pack tonight at the track and I have no worries about it!

michpittsman

My Feedback: (11)

My 200W gun works fine; for many years I have used Trinity liquid flux on my battery packs with excellent results: one drop on the end of the cell results in a shiny flat tinned area with a minimum of heat buildup in the cell. The small amount of flux in rosin-core solder won't hack it.

gerwen

I tried with my 15W iron, not hot enough. Bought an el-cheapo 100W gun at Wal-mart... was even worse.

Picked up a cheap 25W iron and it was plenty hot enough.