What Soldering Iron do you use?

[MetalMan]

Originally Posted by glassdoctor

Hakko 936.. the one with the bigger iron.

Same exact thing I use. I've been using the same original tip for at least a year and a half. But I do clean it quite often while using the iron, and turn the temperature down to the minimum (about 300 deg., I think) when I'm not using it. About a year ago I accidentally shorted the iron across a 10s A123 brick (Dewalt 36v pack) while unsoldering it. The iron has a nice scar from that incident, but it definitely didn't affect the performance.

This iron is also capable of soldering the positive side of A123 cells. For those who don't know, the positive side of A123s is the entire ALUMINUM outer shell.