Author Topic: Soldering Stations  (Read 10092 times)

Offline winwin

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2013, »

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now that one is in my price range

If you reach $50 which is not difficult to do if you get solder wire, you can benefit from a free gift
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. Having a multimeter is helpful and you should get one if you do not have one already.



AL.

Offline rm357

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Soldering Stations
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2013, »
I grew up using the radio shack irons and they are ok.

I have a weller wsT2 butane iron that I use when I'm not at my workbench.

I bought a weller wes51 station when I started into this hobby and absolutely love it. It allows me to work quickly and I can turn the heat down a little for smaller stuff and up for the heavier items. It bought a small tip, which is good when the pins are really close together like the led drivers in the aether 2.  I'm still using my first tip (the small one) after 2 LE, a freestyle, ~10 SSR, 2 mr16, 2 active hubs, ~30 ssc, 3 EtD, 2 USB dongles, bobcat tester, bobcat servo controller, 3 4-port hubs, 4 splitters, 1 DMX splitter, and a few other things. The tip is still in great shape!
Robert
Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

Offline kgustafson

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2013, »
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i would say if your a novice at soldering, then maybe you need the fancy station. i use a 10 dollar, 40w pencil from radio shack and i get the nice wet look, flows to the edge of the pads just fine. i built 12 le's, active hub, 10 ssc's and an ether dongle with no issues. between initial cost and 2 extra tips, i would rather save my money to put towards more lights or more equipment. a 100 dollar soldering station could be 10 ssc's or 256 smart nodes, or an LE with enclosure and wires. all in where you want to put your money.


just my 2 cents


duane

The reason I bought my resolder station is because I am a terrible solderer! *grin*.  Without that heat gun, all my re-work would take forever!  Also, the station I have take seconds to heat up, whereas my weller (which I still have use and do love it) takes a lot longer to warm up.    This helps because I am sooo impatient.

Kurt
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Offline lonewolf41

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #18 on: January 17, 2013, »
I have the older version of this:

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mine uses touch pads instead of a dial to change temperature, but works great.  It is a Hakko clone and uses the same tips.  16LE's, 40+ SSC's, 3 dongles, 1 Etherdongle, 4 hubs, etc., etc., and it works great.  I think I am on my second tip.

HIH,
-Keith

Offline Night Owl

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2013, »
When I was in HS I used a RS el-cheapo soldering iron.  When I decided to get back into electronics, I purchased the 30W adjustable soldering iron from Adafruit.  Worked fine and I built a bunch of LEs, dongles, a bobcat or two, and a bunch of other non-Christmas stuff.  After reading about the different soldering stations, I finally gave in and purchased a Hakko FX-888.  The pen is lighter, it heats up faster, recovery time is pretty much non-existent.  The cord is also more flexible so it is easier to use.

Yes, it is expensive ($80).  But I can work faster with less fatigue.  I consider it an investment.  Plus I wouldn't want to try and fix the CF socket pins using the pencil tip on my old RS iron.  That conical tip would have been a nightmare.  I hope they put a better tip on it by now.

Whatever soldering iron you end up getting, I highly recommend a brass wire sponge tip cleaner.  RS now carries it:

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The brass ribbon scrapes off the excess solder and cleans the tip of burnt rosin and other junk.  The wet sponge works, but it pulls heat away from the tip so you have to wait a bit for the iron to heat back up.  I heard that the sponge thermally shocks the tip and can cause early failure.  Tips are cheap, so I don't know if that is a big issue.  The Hakko has it built in to the iron stand.
 

Offline Harley

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #20 on: January 19, 2013, »
Well i ordered You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

and got You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login FREE!!
Harley in Louisiana

Yep im a n00b, i can break it and blow it up with the best of em

Offline t.jo13

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #21 on: January 20, 2013, »
You will like it... DId you get a couple of extra tips too? Chances are you will burn up a tip or 2 learning how to use it and getting temps set right

Offline Harley

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #22 on: January 20, 2013, »
i watched the EEV Blog series on youtube and have a pretty good idea on how to start
Harley in Louisiana

Yep im a n00b, i can break it and blow it up with the best of em

Offline drlucas

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Re: Soldering Stations
« Reply #23 on: May 11, 2013, »
I just got the weller wes51 station - hopefully it will do the job! I have a couple of LEs, a couple of active hubs and some SSCs to do. Going to learn how to solder on a PS2 that got the ring of death a few years back that I kept in the basement along side the O'Reilly book "learn to solder"....i have a safari books subscription and that is one of the short reads that is available...so why not!!

Can't wait to get my first build done.
Cheers!
Ryan
-Ryan Lucas-
- Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Eh?! -