On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 4:25 AM Brian K. White <b.kenyo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > That tip is bizzarrely good for everything. It's both wide & flat, and > narrow & sharp, whichever you need just by rotating the iron to flip the > bevel up vertical or laying flat. You can get in and touch an individual > soic or qfn leg, or effectively heat up wick enough to clean out > filled vias even without suction.
> I don't know why that isn't the default shape for all irons, even cheap > $10 junkers. After 30+ years of soldering, I can say without any hesitation, that the "conical" tip that some irons come with is 0.2mm above useless. About 2 years ago, a console repairer I follow on Twitter turned me on to the knife tip, and I've never looked back (with the exception of drag-soldering). After watching a few videos on proper technique, the Hakko T18-K tip almost never leaves my iron. And once I get a second iron for my bench, it *never* will. :) https://www.hakko.com/english/tip_selection/type_k.html -Josh
