I’m running lead free (Sn99 Ag 0.3 Cu0.7), and I usually run around 375°C.
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Rebuilding my CA66 today and it seems I use 360°C so I was pretty close with my original guess!
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350° with unleaded Stannol Sn99,3Cu0,7 and about 280 for the good (leaded) stuff. The recommendation from Cherry should come from the ban on leaded solder in commercial use here in germany.
As for diameter, I use 1mm for Switches/MCUs (old leaded solder with specifications not longer visible) and also leaded Felder 0.5mm for SMD stuff. Expect diodes, I also use the 1mm there
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Regarding your TS101, do you have it with a custom firmware?, or just the stock, most recent one?
I soldered my first board with a sub-$20 entry level Weller. It seemed to cycle between hot and less hot every minute. The result was not great. I had to redo a number of sockets. I then got a nice Hakko kit I could set at 650F and it was sooooo much easier to solder and de-solder.
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Just the stock firmware.
I also use it with the barrel connector power cable, as I am right next to a good outlet. I found that it would take it little longer to get up/return to temp on USB C.
Really impressed with it though. If you are on the fence about picking one up, I’d put it in the “worth it” column. 
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Indeed!, already bought one a few days ago; thank you very much!
Odd, mine on USB-C gets up to temp just as quick as it did using the power cord it came with.
Using USB on any iron heavily depends on the power supply that you’re using. Regarding on voltage and poise output regarding the used voltage. The better the power supply, the better
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On the topic of desoldering & soldering, curious to know what everyone’s updated temperatures we’re using for soldering switches and mill-max sockets. I’m currently at 320C.
Also, what soldering? Have the Weller Sn60Pb40 0.8mm on order but wondering if I should have gone with an Sn63Pb37 0.5mm - 0.6mm instead.
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I use Kester 24-6040-0039 1.016mm. A thinner wire might be easier, but I want to use up this spool first, and I’ve been on it for almost 3 years and 20ish PCBs, with a ton still left.
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Yeah I buy the huge spools too. Just more cost effective since they last so long.
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I use whatever temp my soldering iron turns on too lol, works perfect for me.
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Usually 300-350C, as I only use lead-free solder. Current roll is 0.5mm Sn99.3Cu0.6Ni0.05 Weller.
I avoid the “standard” lead-free (SAC305 aka Sn96.5Ag3Cu0.5) as it’s hard to tell if you have a cold joint or not – the surface looks white/rough no matter what you do. With the SnCuNi stuff (as well as 99Sn1Cu), you get the classic behavior of leaded solder where it’s only shiny when the joint is fully bonded.
I tend to go through a lot of solder, as I very frequently coat the iron tip with it. When I’m putting it away, I make sure to put a huge old glob on there to try to protect the tip from oxidation when not in use. Especially helpful for fine point tips.
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I use the standard lead-free silver-containing rosin core solder. 1.6mm diameter. I set my iron to 400 degrees C. I use a fine point. I touch the tip right between the pin from the switch and the pad on the board. Then I immediately feed the solder into it. It melts almost instantly and flows into the joint. Only about one second from start to finish. This is the personal method I use after much trial and error. It gets the job done very quickly with little mess.
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I wanted to share a little story here just in case it helps someone else out.
A while back I accidentally left my Hakko FX-888D soldering iron on in the garage. The iron was not plugged into the base, but the base was left on for days before I realized. When I went to build my next board, I noticed that it was not getting hot enough despite being well over 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
It was a pretty tough issue to look up and figure out how to solve. I thought I would have to buy an extra tool that helps confirm if your iron is at the right temp. Luckily, one bit of advice was to do a factory reset on the iron. Surprisingly enough, this was the fix! I built a board last night and noticed that it seems like I am back to my original temps. I even had to lower the temp down to ~690 F, which is lower than my usual.
In my fix research, one thing I discovered is that apparently depending on which of the two buttons you press on the base station, it is really easy to “re-calibrate” the iron temp when you think you are “setting” the iron temp. My hunch is that some point in the past, I must have went into the wrong menu and altered the calibration by 10 or 20 degrees.
Long story short, if you ever notice some funkiness with your Hakko FX-888D soldering iron, look up how to and perform a factory reset before you get too in the weeds and think about buying calibration tools.
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