Cordless soldering iron

[Lemosteam]

Yesterday, I picked up this Ryobi 18v cordless soldering iron from Home Depot. Did some basic soldering with it and I reallly like it, all but the stiff pencil cord. I have and use many Ryobi 18v tools already so I can have several batteries nearby, but the cord option solves that too, see below.

I bought it to solder under my layout. I’m hoping that it will be long enough to reach up. It’s about the same length as a soldering station. It uses the same Hakko tips I already have. The tip locking sleeve has a larger thread so I can’t use the Hakko style.

Thinking of swapping the cord from an extra pencil I have which is really flexible, or finding some silicone flex wire and making it longer, maybe an up gage on the wire.

Another nice feature is that the unit can be used on 120v AC or the 18v battery.

[PRRS]

Wow...thanks.  Will definitely check this out. 

I use the Dremel Butane cordless right now, but it can be hit or miss sometimes, plus the tips are hard to find now.

[Carolina Northern]

Thanks for the TIP. I'll check it out.

[Lemosteam]

I have been using this soldering iron for over 6 hours powered on over two evenings on a 4mh battery (shown above) and the battery is still half full.  I am quite impressed so far wiring up the underneath lighting on the layout.  Although the cord still has its bends for packaging, I have not yet had an issue trying to solder.

[samusi01]

I seem to be particularly dense this afternoon... can you clarify the following?

It uses the same Hakko tips I already have.

Whilst the next sentence is

The tip locking sleeve has a larger thread so I can’t use the Hakko style.

Are you saying that you can use the Hakko tips but not the sleeve? Also, which version of Hakko tips (T15, T18, TX2...)?

[Lemosteam]

The tips fit but the Hakko sleeve will not.

I am not familiar enough to tell you the tip series, but the old is maybe 5mm or so.

[samusi01]

Very good, thank you.

[Chris333]

We use corded Milwaukee heat guns at work for shrink wrap on wires. They bought some 18V battery powered cordless versions and well they suck balls. Hardly any heat, and you need to hit a wire from about 3 sides to get it to fully shrink. The corded version would start shrinking before the fan even got up to speed and fulling shrunk from just one angle.

So does this thing get hot enough?  My soldering iron (Ungar UTC 300) has a knob and goes up to 800 degrees.

[Lemosteam]

Yes Chris, although I don’t have a temp reading tool, I like my iron about 700-800 degrees. This feels just like my Hakko style knockoff hobby iron, temp wise.

The dial on the Ryobi unit goes from 400 to 900, but I have no way to verify that via measurement.

I have been able to remove lacquer on all thicknesses of magnet wire, which is always a need when messing with LEDs.

Btw, I just use the side of the tip sleeve near the heat shrink tubing along its length on two or three sides to shrink it.

[peteski]

We use corded Milwaukee heat guns at work for shrink wrap on wires. They bought some 18V battery powered cordless versions and well they suck balls. Hardly any heat, and you need to hit a wire from about 3 sides to get it to fully shrink. The corded version would start shrinking before the fan even got up to speed and fulling shrunk from just one angle.

So does this thing get hot enough?  My soldering iron (Ungar UTC 300) has a knob and goes up to 800 degrees.

That is like apples and oranges Chris.  Soldering irons heat up a very small piece of metal (soldering tip), while a heat gun (like a large hair dryer) has to heat up a large volume of air.  Even a 15W soldering iron can do a good job for general purpose electrical or electronic soldering (I use a temperature controlled 40W  iron and that generates more than enough heat for even some larger jobs), while my corded heat gun is rated at 1400W.

You just can't get that kind of wattage from a cordless battery powered unit (or you would have to wear a large backpack containing the battery.  That is why your cordless heat gun at work sucks.
I wonder if it shows a wattage rating (but I doubt it).

John, does your soldering iron shows its wattage?  I would be curious.

[Chris333]

This is the heat gun (no wattage shown)
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/2688-20

I just wondered about battery powered anything being able to create heat.

Those cordless butane soldering irons work great, but they are gas powered.

[peteski]

This is the heat gun (no wattage shown)
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/2688-20

I just wondered about battery powered anything being able to create heat.

Those cordless butane soldering irons work great, but they are gas powered.

I don't see any wattage ratings there, but I'm sure that it is not even close to the heat capacity (wattage) of the plug-in heat guns.

You can use battery powered soldering irons, because the heat is so concentrated.  I still have a 40 year old handheld cordless Weller iron which can do some light soldering, It only uses 2 C-size NiCad cells.  It can come in handy in a pinch for some small repairs.  The batteries died long time ago and I have replacement ones to make the unit serviceable (just haven't had time to deal with that project).  I just can't force myself to throw tools away. 

[Chris333]

Most plug in stuff for creating heat are 1500 watts because a normal outlet is 15 amps and to be UL listed you can't go over that.

[Lemosteam]

@peteski , the product listing on Home Depot's product page states 45W. 

By contrast, my knockoff similar to the unit below is 60W.  The cheap weller is 40W:

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/trakpower-tk950-soldering-station/DTXR0950.html

[peteski]

@peteski , the product listing on Home Depot's product page states 45W. 

By contrast, my knockoff similar to the unit below is 60W.  The cheap weller is 40W:

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/trakpower-tk950-soldering-station/DTXR0950.html

That's it is a good wattage rating for a general purpose pencil  type soldering iron.  With that amount of power temperature control is very important when the iron is used for precision soldering (like decoder wires, etc.)  Without temperature control a 40W iron would be too hot to safely solder small stuff.

As for the plug-in heat guns, 1500W is plenty for what they are intended for.  I'm sure the cordless version is much lower power (thus wimpier).