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This is a pretty open-ended question intentionally. :-)

All of the soldering I've done to this point has been with through-hole components. I hope to move up to some smaller surface-mount parts at some point in the future. I've got a Weller WES51 soldering station that came with a "screwdriver" tip (ETA, I think) that's starting to feel a bit like working with a sausage as my skills (incrementally) improve. There is a large number of ET series tips available. How do I choose the right tip for the components I'll be working with?

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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.

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If you are soldering TQFP one pin at a time, you are doing it wrong. Search YouTube for "drag soldering". Myself, I prefer a 1.8mm chisel tip. I've soldered TQFP, TSSOP, DFN with it. The super-tiny tips just make a mess. They don't transfer enough heat to the joint and it's easy to lift a trace when the solder freezes to the tip. – markrages Jan 7 at 15:05
First, you can drag solder with a tiny tip - it's never frozen up for me (are you sure you're using the right iron and tip if your tip is freezing? Sounds to me like a bad tool, or poor skill.), secondly, soldering it one pin at a time is certainly not 'wrong' - in fact I'm scratching my head at why you would think so. It's a different technique, certainly, and can be more time consuming, but it doesn't damage the chip, pin, or PCB, and results in a good solder joint. The man whose only tool is a hammer tends to see everything as a nail. I find it useful to have and use several techniques. – Adam Davis Jan 8 at 14:41
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Get the biggest one that is comfortable to use for the parts you are soldering. Obviously for smaller SMD parts, you'll need a smaller tip, but smaller tips are also slower to transfer heat, making it harder to solder.

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I like the 20mil tip with a 30deg bend. Great for SMD. I use wider parts of the tip for larger leads. The Metcal heats the tip mass very quickly.

If I am soldering a lot of connector pins I keep the 20+year old Weller on. Large chisel tip.

The part numbers for the tips and my tools are at http://tinyurl.com/5foeou

(* jcl *)

http://www.wiblocks.com

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