Milwaukee M12 Soldering iron REVIEW-

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I am a solder buff. It's a coincidence that I have also been eyeing this M12 soldering gun. I have an M12 driver with the smaller batteries only. They are fine for the driver. They charge fast.(being a smaller Mah). And coincidently I also have the exact same Radio Shack soldering Station you have. I love the 780F that it produces with excellent temp recovery as well. Your video was superb and covered it well. I am glad this M12 can solder at 750F. That was my concern. Again, great video . Thanx. Just what the doctor ordered. I want a portable for field work and when I travel to bash. I considered the butane portables but some have said that they don't produce consistent and accurate heat. That Radio Shack Soldering station spoiled me. I got it on clearance when my local RS was closing. Got it for $60.00. Too bad RS went out.
Enjoy the Holidays.:)
 
Thanks SrC! Yeah, I really like that RS solder station. Heats quick, recovers quick. I think I paid $85 for mine. RS didn't always have what I needed, but it was 2 minutes from the house, so I was in there often... RIP Radio Shack... :(

I also tried the butane iron years ago. As you said, it never seemed consistent, and often when out mid-job. I really hated it.

For the M12 iron, with 90w, I am guessing they are trying to cover the plumbers market as well, for sweating copper pipe. 90w is a LOT of power for soldering wires. But, for those ESC terminals, :D :D :D I always hate replacing those wires, even with my RS iron. I figure ESC's are designed to move / dissipate heat, so those terminals just don't like to get hot enough. BUT - They were a piece of cake with this M12 iron. (y)
 
Thanks Jerry! Clicked through to YouTube and notice you have lots of videos that I'd like to watch including footage of a couple banggood -type models I own. I subscribed and look forward to watching tonight.
 
I was curious about that soldering iron as well. I have a cheap 60W and 100W iron. The 100W is like soldering with a baseball bat. Pretty sure it was intended for stained glass work. I got the adjustable temp socket for it as well and run it at 75% when soldering ends. 85% when desoldering lipo's. It make short work of pretty much any of those large pools of solder. I got the 60W and it worked ok, but I had to run it at nearly 100% to do 10AWG wire properly. Was fine on the smaller 12-14awg stuff. It wouldn't even touch the pools on the lipo tabs though when I was disassembling those. Now I only use it would working on receiver type wires or 14awg on down.

FWIW, the torch ones do suck. I've had a couple over the years and they just don't work well, so I remove the soldering attachment and just use it as a mini torch.
 
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olds97_lss said:
I was curious about that soldering iron as well. I have a cheap 60W and 100W iron. The 100W is like soldering with a baseball bat. Pretty sure it was intended for stained glass work. I got the adjustable temp socket for it as well and run it at 75% when soldering ends. 85% when desoldering lipo's. It make short work of pretty much any of those large pools of solder. I got the 60W and it worked ok, but I had to run it at nearly 100% to do 10AWG wire properly. Was fine on the smaller 12-14awg stuff. It wouldn't even touch the pools on the lipo tabs though when I was disassembling those. Now I only use it would working on receiver type wires or 14awg on down.

FWIW, the torch ones do suck. I've had a couple over the years and they just don't work well, so I remove the soldering attachment and just use it as a mini torch.
Click to expand...


100 Watt iron?!? YOW! That's for leading old car bodies!

I haven't run across any R/C hobby stuff my Weller 40 Watt can't handle. And if I do, I'll get his 75 Watt big brother out.....
 
i think my concern with the m12 was its size, and that I solder at 800 degrees sometimes.

Since you own one, do you feel the size of it will ever be a hindrance or wish you had the slimmer styles of irons?

I was also really interested in the TS100 portable iron, you can plug them into a 6s lipo that we all have lying around.
When I was shopping around, I was curious how the m12 and ts100 stacked up to each other.

I am still really interested in the ts100. the m12 would be good if all my power tools werent the other brands, lol
 
Awesome vid bro ? I just got the M12 driver set and I don’t yet own a soldering iron. So this information is very nice to have!
 
RSM801 said:
i think my concern with the m12 was its size, and that I solder at 800 degrees sometimes.

Since you own one, do you feel the size of it will ever be a hindrance or wish you had the slimmer styles of irons?

I was also really interested in the TS100 portable iron, you can plug them into a 6s lipo that we all have lying around.
When I was shopping around, I was curious how the m12 and ts100 stacked up to each other.

I am still really interested in the ts100. the m12 would be good if all my power tools werent the other brands, lol
Click to expand...
I have not tried the TS100. As for the M12 size, yeah, it is big, but not huge. As I said in the vid, I expect most of my soldering will still be with my 60w soldering station. But as ols97 noted, some jobs, like Lipo tabs, the 60w iron just does not cut it. And for track days, it will be in the box.(y)
 
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