Can't think where else to post this... My soldering iron is useless - it takes forever to heat up and still performs poorly on general/lightweight electronic soldering; regardless of how well I clean and tin the tips. I can't afford a big brand quality iron, and I saw this. Looks too good to be true (so yeah, I may have already answered my own question), but does anyone out there have one, or can any of you recommend a decent, inexpensive, solder station? Cheers all Spreadie
I actually have something identical, just red instead of blue; it is rather cheap but it functions just fine, great for doing tiny wire and anything upto about 14-16 gauge- just dial down the heat for the smaller stuff. Lead free solder and/or rosin-cored makes life a lot easier than the cheapo 60/40 lead stuff too. For big 8-12 gauge wires and connectors I use a 75watt Weller, but for everything else the little station works fine for me, just give it a few minutes to heat up and keep the tip clean/ tinned as required.
Just a quick update. I bought that solder station, and I'm very impressed with it. Heats up very quickly and I can now solder properly in a few seconds rather than minutes. Thanks SuicideNeil! Regards Spreadie
That does look good... how fine is the tip, small enough for surface mount work on existing hardware i.e. soldering to usb pins on laptop motherboard?
I´ve recently bought a Dremel Versatip and every day I use it I´m more happy with my decision. It´s gas powered and takes a breath to heat. Maybe too hot if you are planning to use it with IC´s, but really great for dealing with cables, LEDs, connectors and though stuff like that. It´s a shame that the tip is a little bit fat, but great tool wich you can also use to cut plastic, shrink heatshrink and draw on wood among others.
Sorry for the late response, I didn't get a notification email. The tip is fine for general PCB work, however it might get a bit tricky soldering a fairly dense pin matrix. I've soldered/desoldered USB pins with larger tip than this one - so, I'd say it should be OK. If you're going for that model, do a search on ebay. You can get the same one, with all the extras, and a spare tip for £1 more. Regards Spreadie
here is a cool open source project for a DIY soldering station that suports PTC and K-type soldering irons. Hakko/compatables and Solomon are the supported soldering irons and there are good quality tip out there for them, and the replacement Irons are also cheap <$20. The pcb and schematic as well as firmware are available there and there is a version of the drivers that is all through hole components. http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2457 P.S. theses stations hold the temperature within <1C of the set temperature and perform even better then the original counterparts...... P.S.S here is a video of my own that is simmilar to the one mentioned above, but only supports Solomon K-type pencils http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FVSwhyjBcQ
