I have used a Weller WTCPT iron for many many years and have found it to be
excellent for some things and less than ideal for others. Initially, I used
it for working on cameras and it was ideally suited to that purpose.
Interchangeable tips allowed changing both the tip temperature and size.
Worked great for removing and reinstalling ics on a flex circuit. It was a
bit small for the bigger tasks of building stereo amplifiers. It has worked
acceptably for soldering connectors on my Frogeye wiring harness, although
something more than 42 Watts would work even better. The rechargable irons
we had in one shop didn't work very well, so I wouldn't reccommend them.
Newer ones may work better, but I don't have any experience with them.
To do a job right you would really want the biggest iron that you can
control on the particular job. Surprisingly, you are more likely to damage
heat sensitive components with too small an iron than with too big. This is
because you have too keep the iron on the connection longer and the heat has
an opportunity to spread and damage nearby components. For most automotive
work 100 Watts would probabally work well; however if you are going to mess
around inside a tach or other delicate instrument a smaller iron would be
better. Both Ungar and Weller are good brands with a fairly large selection
of irons to meet most needs.
Hal
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