Soldering stations?

I

Izza

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Mar 23, 2004
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Looking into buying a new soldering station. I've been pricing adjustable Weller units, but I'm curious as to what some of you guys have been using. Recommendations?

I'll be using it primarily for small DIY projects, recapping, and tinkering.
 
The better Weller units are nice, but anything less than the WES51 - you can do better for the money.

Take a look at the Hakko 936 (this is what I use), or even the clones of this station that are available under the name 'Aoyue 936'. Obviously the Hakko is nicer, but for the money I've heard the Aoyue is a great buy.

And if money is no object, Metcal is the gold standard.
 
I don't do a whole lot of soldering, but I've been quite pleased with my Hakko 936.
 
The Aoyue 936 looks REAL nice for the money.

I'm on a pretty extreme budget on this stuff, and seeing as I don't really do any soldering for a living anymore, this seems more my speed.

Any other units in that price range I should look for, or is the Aoyue pretty much 'the' one to get for the money?

(Don't mean to seem picky, but I'm cheap, and I wanna get all I can for my money. :p)
 
Izza said:
The Aoyue 936 looks REAL nice for the money.
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My only concern is that it may not be powerful enough for working on the heavy solid power planes on a motherboard.

Any other units in that price range I should look for, or is the Aoyue pretty much 'the' one to get for the money?
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There's a company Circuit Specialists that sells a couple apparently identical clones to the Aoyue under the brand CSI. They also have a 70W sort-of clone the CSI-2901 that might help with those power planes. Also look at the products from a company called Madell. They have a Hakko clone that looks much nicer than the Aoyue for not much more. See here: http://www.madelltech.com/m3-8.html .

Those are the ones I've heard of. There are probably more.
 
I just picked up a Hakko 936 a couple weeks ago. Sure beats the heck out of the dual-wattage RadioShack special I used to use...
 
Heh, as expensive as they are, I'd just like to *hold* a Metcal. I bet they reek of quality.
 
I love my metcal, too. For a hobbyist (that's not crazy, like me), I'd go with the Hakko/Aoyue series. Lots of good comments on those stations all over the web.
 
i have a 25 watt iron for 20$, and a 5$ stand.

I build tube guitar amps for fun, have built guitar FX pedals, hifi stereos, did some car stereos, a thingamagoop (its a musical robot, check it out :) ) etc. PCB, PTP, terminal strips, you name it. If i REALLY wanted a variable workstation, i would build a power limiter into an extension cable.

I do not understand the need of spending more than 30$ on an iron for casual use.

As long as your iron gets hot enough for your solder (pcb's are easy with 20w, potentiometers and chassis soldering you'll need 25w tops), and as long as your tip is well tinned, spending that much money is not completely necessary.

HOWEVER. There are a few problems you may run into if you do more versatile work. If your iron does not get hot enough, chassis soldering and soldering stuff to potentiometers is the biggest pain ever - might want a high current iron with a limiter knob for that - or a syringe of flux. And on the other hand, if your iron is too hot, and you arent experienced, you can toast the traces on a PCB. Oh and if you want to use rohs solder... its a p.i.t.a. if your iron isnt hot enough.

I'd say pay 1$ for every hour you expect to use it per month. I use my 30$ jobber much more than that, but I'd say 100$ on a weller that you will rarely use is a waste. Most tinkerers will be just fine with a cheap Mastercraft :).
 
Still haven't bought a unit (baby expenses... meh).

I will say though, while I don't do this for a living any more, I used to. Once you've used a high quality unit, there's no going back. I bought a $5 cheap-o from Wal-Mart just to get by, and it sucks... but, it got the job done. It did pretty much sell me on the idea of getting a nice station as soon as it's in the budget, though.
 
Yeah, I wouldn't skimp on a soldering station unless you're planning on using it only once or twice.

The hakko 936 I use is quite nice but I think its discontinued now. The hakko clones, (which used to be sold under a lot more names but currently Aoyou and CSI) i've heard are almost as nice and should be a no-brainer for the hobbyist on a budget.

If you aren't familiar with soldering equipment, go with the medium chisel tips rather than a fine thin tip. I made the mistake of going with the finest tip I can find, and unless you're using a metcal or some other top of the line station, it won't be able to hold it's heat up against large ground-planes and thick wire/leads and cranking up the heat will only burn the components.
 
Metcal/OKi stations are awesome. Alot of people will say otherwise,but I think it's worth the investment.
 
JamesL said:
Yeah, I wouldn't skimp on a soldering station unless you're planning on using it only once or twice.

The hakko 936 I use is quite nice but I think its discontinued now.
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I just bought a Hakko 936 from Fry's a couple months back, and it's still available on their website.

(Love my Hakko, BTW. Huge step up from my old dual-wattage RadioShack iron)
 
anyone have any hot air rework stations? I'm all about buying quality tools, but I don't do a ton of SMD/BGA work, and I'd like something that will do it's job without killing my wallet. I've been looking at the Aoyue 85xA++ on ebay, and a few others. Anything <$150-200 shipped that you guys recommend?
 
diredesire said:
anyone have any hot air rework stations? I'm all about buying quality tools, but I don't do a ton of SMD/BGA work, and I'd like something that will do it's job without killing my wallet. I've been looking at the Aoyue 85xA++ on ebay, and a few others. Anything <$150-200 shipped that you guys recommend?
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i am a noob when it come to electronics but I am wanting to learn more. I just replaced a Cap on my monitor and the hardest part was desoldering the Cap. Would this be usefull for future soldering jobs? Aoyue 906 ESD Hot Air Station Soldering Rework System
 
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I was given a butane wireless soldering iron on christmas a couple years back.I love it.

It's a little clunky, and would be hard if I little baby hands
 
The best I've had the pleasure of working with is the PACE PRC2000 we have at work.

Unless you do an insane amount of solder/desolder/reflow work, I can't recommend it, as its 5,000 dollars new.

The benches also have little Weller units that work pretty good.
 
Diablo2K said:
i am a noob when it come to electronics but I am wanting to learn more. I just replaced a Cap on my monitor and the hardest part was desoldering the Cap. Would this be usefull for future soldering jobs? Aoyue 906 ESD Hot Air Station Soldering Rework System
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Ehhh... yes and no. Hot air can surely be useful for this application, but it's more "necessary" if you're starting to work with many, many pinned SOICs/SMD components. A cap with a large enough wattage iron should be no problem to replace. The biggest problem you'll encounter with de-soldering (caps) is that many components have one lead tied to a big-ass ground plane, and heating that thing up enough to make the solder melt requires a large amount of time with the iron connected to the board.

This can lead to lifting pads, and/or is just a bad practice in general. If you have a really high end iron/nice tools, you can extract parts quickly with minimal impact on the board. This is where the high end soldering equipment comes in. Hot air (in general) is a little like using an axe to cut an apple, but would also be quick and easy. It's not going to be worse than using a low wattage/crappy iron to try and heat a big ground plane, that's for sure.
 
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Diablo2K said:
i am a noob when it come to electronics but I am wanting to learn more. I just replaced a Cap on my monitor and the hardest part was desoldering the Cap. Would this be usefull for future soldering jobs? Aoyue 906 ESD Hot Air Station Soldering Rework System
Click to expand...
I think that's overkill. I use the $11 RadioShack desoldering iron for removing caps, and it works great for me, even with the ginormous ground planes.
 
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About 340AUD delivered from ebay, considering what you are getting it's a steal.

youtube "862 rework station" to see them in action

The basic model that does 18x18 mm BGA
T-862

img12370935781511012512.jpg
 
Above soldering station is awesome, I might look into this. :)
 
We bought a weller WESD51 almost a year ago for the shop, as we regularly replace power ports on laptop boards. It ran great at first, but pretty quick started developing an issue where the iron pencil would get hot and the plastic grip would start to move on the metal iron, getting loose enough that we couldn't use it right. I've had a hard time getting a hold of Weller to start the RMA process. Anyone have a similar experience and/or have a good way to get in contact with the right people to start the RMA?
 
nm, just had to get a hold of the right person....

1-800-476-3030 ext1

fully covered :)
 
I also used to have a cheap soldering iron, but last year I bought myself a Magnum 2005 with a 1002 iron and the 1003 micro iron.

http://www.magnumproducts.co.za/2005.html

Came to something like $200. After using it just a couple of times I had to question how I managed with the old irons.

I don't know if these are available outside of South Africa though.
 
I've been using a Circuit Specialists soldering station for about five years. It works sooooo much better than an iron. The temperature control keeps the iron from being too hot or too cold. I used to use it about 40+ hours a month and won't go back to anything less. WIth a good tip and technique even tight pitch SMT is relatively easy.
 
I have a WESD51. Being able to choose any temperature and have the iron there in a matter of seconds is unbeatable in my opinion. I also absolutely love the new style pencils although I prefer a sharper tip than the included one for doing a lot of things.
 
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