Proper Wattage for Soldering Iron - Model Railroader Magazine

 I have a nice (and actually inexpensive) 40-watt sodlerign station that works quite well for soldering both circuit boards and decoders as well as track feeders. it is NOT strogn enough to solder to the #12 bus wire under the layout - I have a 150 watt soldering gun for that.

 While you can definitely have too big an iron for a particular job, it's not so much the amount of heat as the size of the tip. The primary key to good soldering is ALWAYS keept he tip clean and tinned. It should be bright and shiny - it it's not, heat transfer will suffer and you'll have to hold the heat on longer to melt the solder - this is what causes melted wires, damaged components, and peels the copper traces from circuit boards.

  A solderign station actually makes a lot of sense - a typical soldering iron continues to heat as long as it is plugged in. Even a small 25 watter can get VERY hot after an extended session. This causes the tip to wear out and leads right back to issue #1, dirty tip and poor heat transfer. A solderign station cycles the power on and off to maintain a fairly even temperature, so the tip stays cleaner and in good condition longer. You don;t have to spend $100+ on one, the Xytronics one I have cost less than $50, although it has now been discontinued and the replacement lead-free model is $55 from the same supplier - they also made the base smaller and added a digital temp readout - mine simply has a dial. For the kind of stuff done on a model railroad, the ultra precision really isn't necessary.  I've had it for 2 years now, still on the original tip, and it still works great whether I'm soldering decoder wires or track (I originally got it to build turnouts with Fast Tracks fixtures - the soldering part went well, it's got plenty of heat to solder code 83 rail to PC board ties).

                                       --Randy