I have a big weller soldering gun, but its to big and clunky for doing fine soldering work on all these new electrical connectors.

What type of soldering iron would you recommend, reasonably priced but good enough to solder these types of connections. I'm tired of melting the plastic housings before I can get the solder to flow.

Any recommendations would be nice.

Thanks in advance

Get yourself a 30watt weller pencil iron
wattmeter

-Yep, a pencil style soldering iron will get the job done for many jobs. I've been soldering for ~50 years (Mil Spec trained), and I finally bought a 60W Weller Soldering Station for home a few years ago; I should have bought one a long time ago! One of the tricks for soldering is to use the right tool for the job. The soldering station tends to keep an accurate tip temperature, which is important for PCBs and delicate work. A soldering pencil will work for splicing small wires. A soldering gun is good for landing gear and bigger jobs.
-Here are a couple of inexpensive soldering irons:
http://www.toddsmodels.com/product_p/hcar0776.htm
http://www.toddsmodels.com/product_p/welwlc100.htm

All readers,

Soldering connectors without melting the plastic is more a matter of technique than one of iron wattage or temperature.

Of course the pieces (connector and wire) must be clean (no oxidation , rust or oily contaminant).

Pre-thin the wire. Then one of two ways (two methods).

1- Place the pre-thinned wire on top of the connector area to be soldered. Have the iron ready with a little pool of melted solder on the face of the iron tip. Put the solder (wire) in contact withthe wire and the connector. Touch the iron face in contact with the pre-thinned wire where the solder is also in contact. As soon as the solder wire melts remove the iron and wait a few seconds for the solder to freeze.

2- Same as above but touch the iron underneath the connector. Again as soon as the solder melt on top, remove the iron and wait a few seconds for the solder to freeze.

Voila, no problems.

Zor

Soldering is always about technique, but using the wrong tool won't help. I'm assuming you already have the technique. The temperature is very important for a very good connection, ~700 degrees F is a good place to start. A small amount of RMA flux will also help. The wattage is important for the mass of the metal you are trying to solder. "Heat sinks" (a large mass of metal) require a high wattage iron, small wires don't. I have given many solder tests for "qualified" people, most people fail the test. You don't need a Mil-Spec soldering job for most hobby work, but you do need to recognize a poor connection that might fail. Send me an email if you need some help with your technique.

Have been using a Sears Craftman 100 wat gun soldering iron with no problems in my hobby needs for 20 years.

Probably can work better with this gun than with a pencil solderin Iron.

Have experienced problems soldering bullets in 10 AWG wire and Esc with big heat sinks.

<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; ">I've been extremely happy with the "Team Checkpoint" soldering station.  Though it is now discontinued at Tower, it would appear that the TrakPower Soldering Station is the same unit.<div>
</div><div>While others have no doubt soldered more than I, 8 years in Army signal support gave me plenty of chances to hone my technique, and I've soldered a few hundred deans connections the last few years, converting a glow fleet to electron power, and through all of that, the Checkpoint unit is the nicest piece of equipment I've used.</div></div>

Perhaps these pictures can help

thanks everyone for the advice, I went with a simple Weller 40 watt pencil Iron for about $23, should be fine.

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.

End

Thanks Zor, this was purchased for smaller, finer work.

After leaving a small electric pencil type plugged in and inducing the birth of my daughter I picked up one of the nice butane torch and soldering iron jobs from lowes. Very satisfied so far.