soldering
I've got a Weller soldering station with settable temperature and interchangeable tips.
Is there a table or general guidelines for temperatures and tips for different soldering tasks, such as:
It depends on what you're soldering, and how skilled you are at soldering.
You can, in fact, solder a 0.4mm pitch TQFP with a tip that spans several pins, such as the ETA you mention, but it takes a lot more skill (and flux!).
If you're doing mostly through hole components, the ETA is perfectly fine.
I'm also doing SMT and very fine SMT work, so I also purchased the 0.030" and 0.015" conical tips. I use these under a microscope to do the 0.4mm (about 0.016") pitch TQFP chips.
It is worthwhile getting the biggest chisel tip you can, as well, for the occasional need to deal with soldered heatsinks, or parts soldered to ground planes or PCB heatsinks. These can pump all 40+ watts of your iron into the joint, allowing you to remove it without heating the component up too much.
Keep in mind that typical wet sponge tip cleaners can lower the tip's temperature significantly, especially with the small tips. I use a gold tip cleaner similar to this Hakko product, which doesn't soak as much heat from the iron on each wipe.
Wire to SIL socket:
Wire to pad:
General advice:
Best Answer
Some soldering experts may disagree with me but I usually always use 750-800°F (400-425°C). It seems the biggest variable is the tip. For through hole and wire to wire I use a very big tip. I use a smaller tip for SMT. It has always seemed to me, for correct heat transfer, tip size is much more important than temperature. If you find yourself needing to hold the iron against your parts too long (more than a few seconds) I'd use a bigger tip. Wire to wire usually isn't as critical or easy to damage as ICs, usually just don't want to start melting the insulation. Following this method I've never burnt a chip to death. Killed them plenty of other ways though, and I'm definitely not a professional solderer.