Can anyone recommend a good soldering station?
Peter Walsh wrote 07/06/2018 at 16:36 • 1 pointCan anyone recommend a good soldering station?
I have a 6040/878 from China, and the handle literally melts. I've replaced the handle *twice* now, and it seems the melting is a design flaw without resolution.
I have a Weller WTCPT station that's temperature controlled... a fine system, but doesn't get hot enough to melt the new non-leaded solders.
I don't want to spend the time and energy getting something online just to find out it's another piece of Chinese crap.
So... what's a good hobbyist soldering station to buy? Something that will last a few years, isn't electrically dangerous to use, and gets hot enough to melt the modern solders?
Any suggestions?
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Ido have a Hakko and love it, but if I were looking for a soldering station today I would give a try in the TS100! Its an open source project, uses STM32 you can program it! Super cool!
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This is too old a thread to add too, but I'm really bothered by the Chinese knockoff complaint. It's like my grandfather's complaint of "cheap Japanese crap."(transistor radios and the like). Now "Japanese" electronics are likely to refer to "high-end" quality. Economies of scale and other factors mean Chinese products can be just as good, although there IS a huge number crap Chinese knockoffs. I'm not about being politically correct, or cheering on the ascent of the Chinese economy. It's just that the time of discouraging makers from Chinese products is passe, and of course in many cases we don't have much choice, anyways.
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just saw this. If you are still shopping check out Pace. I have the ST50 soldering & ST115 rework stations. For most soldering I use the TD100 irons. They are awesome & rugged units. Maybe a bit high-end but you should be able to get the ST50 on eBay (I bought for $140). You can also get a variety of tips on eBay and they are also still supported by Pace and available through many outlets.
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Thank you everyone for your responses!
The responses contained a handful of recommendations, and indirectly led to a few more through linked blog posts and such... which is exactly what I wanted. These let me narrow my search to items that people use and like.
TL;DR I ordered a Hakko FX880 from a reputable dealer.
The important bit that came up in my search was to get an authentic station and not a cheap Chinese knockoff. The way to do this is to verify that the seller is an authorized dealer from the manufacturer's website - this then allows convenient shopping from Amazon, which has several authorized dealers. (Also DigiKey, Farnell, and other places.)
Looking at various reviews, the Hakko unit frequently gets 5 stars. The FX880 unit apparently has a hard to use/understand interface, so it's currently discounted online in favor of a newer model with more buttons. I figure I can manage a hard interface, so the discounted unit is a good fit.
I could have gotten high-temp tips for my Weller station, but I'm already changing tips, and frequently heat up the iron only to discover it's got the wrong tip installed and I have to change the tip while hot. My take is that the Weller is good in an industrial setting where you're doing the same type of soldering over and over, but in a "variety" setting being able to change the temp at the station is more convenient.
The TS100 and related seem to be good devices, but I'm a bit wary of the specialized ceramic tip. I want something to use for 10 years, and I'm concerned the TS100 tip will probably be redesigned to a newer model and become obsolete in a few years. Being (roughly) portable is a clear advantage and I can see why people like it, but portability is not something I need. Also, that market seems to be flooded with Chinese knock-offs.
The various high-end stations - Metcal, JBC, Weller and so on - are all nice, and I considered getting one of those for awhile, but the torrent of good reviews for the Hakko unit simply convinced me otherwise. (The high-end stations are more expensive new, but used on eBay they're about the same as the Hakko.)
As part of the search, I also discovered "hot tweezers" for removing SMD components. As a consultant I've needed those in the past 3 months, and the Hakko unit has a hot tweezers tip that looks like it will do the job.
The tweezers are wildly expensive (the tweezers tip is more expensive than the station), but there are a lot of complaints online about sub-standard hot tweezers (not hot enough, misaligned and hard to align, difficult to use, can't get replacement tips), so I decided to go with Hakko ones. They're deductable for my business, so there's that.
(I note that if I had hot tweezers in my lab it would have saved me several hours on my last contract. Enough hours that it would have paid for the tweezers. Sold!)
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I'd have to disagree with your suggestion of avoiding Chinese stations. I have a Yihua 937D+(?) and it's compatible with Hakko tips. I've abused it nearly every day for five years so far. Only had to replace the heater coil once, and that's because I cracked it like the oaf I am.
The temperature control is great, you can buy entire replacement handles for peanuts on the usual websites, and if something catastrophic happens to it, a) it's easy to fix b) it's cheap anyway.
I can't really think of any good reason to buy brand name, unless you have very specific requirements, like needing huge amounts of power for giant cable soldering, or if you wanted a vacuum desolderer.
EDIT: I also assume you're taking about the FX-888, as there is no such thing as an FX-880 as far as I can tell.
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I've been looking for a new iron as well. My Ungar iron I've been using gave up and I can't find a new heating element for it. And it wasn't a temperature controlled iron anyway. After doing much reasearch I've been considering getting an ERSA i-CON Pico or an ERSA RDS-80. I had never heard of ERSA before looking for a new iron and I've never used one. But they seem to have universally good reviews and comments from users. If anyone has used either of these and can provide an opinion on how well they work I'd appreciate it. The RDS-80 is about $105 on Amazon, and the Pico is about $155 right now.
http://a.co/6Bye2VY
http://a.co/4ADeP4m
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You posted right when I was writing up my summary.
The ERSA i-CON was the high-end one I was considering before getting the Hakko unit.
The ERSA has the hot tip very close to your hand, which means you have much better control over the hot end. Soldering to me is like trying to write with a pencil while holding the eraser - you get much more control if you choke up and hold the pencil nearer the tip.
It has good reviews, isn't plagued by Chinese knock-offs, and uses standard tips. It was my second choice after the Hakko.
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The tips for the ERSA irons are the one thing that has made me hesitate on getting one. They are a bit expensive for just normal tips that aren't an integrated heater/tip unit like some of the higher end units. But on the other hand, I don't abuse the tips anyway and the ones I had for my old Ungar unit lasted for years.
One issue with the Hakko units is that I think the blue/yellow color scheme is ugly and looks like a Fisher Price kids toy. Maybe I shouldn't let that influence my decision on what is the best iron to by, but it does...
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Honestly, just get a Hakko clone from eBay. I bought one five years ago for $50 or so. I buy Plato tips (they are very good quality and are Hakko-compatible). The thing is an absolute workhorse and the only failure I had was my own fault for being an oaf.
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I have a Hakko 926 and a no-name $8 USB iron from eBay. The eBay USB iron can only be used with a powerbank (because of capacitive coupling inherent in switch-mode power supplies) -- but I find myself using it almost exclusively. A $15 "BlackWeb" model from Wal*Mart does nicely for me, but anything rated to put out at least 1.6a continuous will do. (Or make your own with a 6v lantern battery and a suitably rated diode -- the innards of the USB iron won't care -- and the cheap carbon-zinc batteries from Wal*Mart that are $5 for a 2pk work fine.)
Aside from the obvious handiness of the USB iron, it heats up faster than my Hakko and I think it gets slightly hotter. (It also cools off almost instantly. Keep a finger on the metal ball, or it'll cut off after ~30sec...) I had some eBay-issue lead free solder that wouldn't stick to anything, but I think that was the solder, rather than the iron.
I should mention that the cord is kind of a pain in the tail (it either breaks or shorts, but either way, it doesn't work properly for long), but since it's a male USB-A connector on one end and a stereo headphone jack on the other (TRS -> tip is one end, sleeve is the other, ring is unused, don't remember which the polarity is tho) -- rigging up a replacement should be almost no challenge at all.
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Check out TS100 on marcoreps channel on youtube. Also they announced TS80 in soon future. TS100 is my favorite, its more practical than a huge desk station, works in the field on batteries, is opensource and outperforms a weller for just 50$. Company that makes them is MiniWare i think. Based in china but quality is superb. They also have plenty of accessories for them, check out the TS-ILS tip, ceramic holder and leather pouch. All cheap and all high end.
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Metcal irons are excellent. They can be picked up used for reasonable prices, and tips are available for different temperatures. Have tried Pace, Weller, Hakko and none of them even come close to working as well as a Metcal.
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The cheap Hakkos are good enough. Avoid Chinese 85x, Metcal.
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My hacker space has a JBC CD-2D. It is 5 times better but also 5 times more expensive than other soldering stations.
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+1 on $60 ts100 and clones https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/
new $240 pace ads200 if you have the budget https://youtu.be/erKCA71q7cg?t=5m24s
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The Weller station uses magnastat handles, right? There are soldering tips for up to 425°C I think? Just choose the right one and go ahead. (http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/weller/accessories/tips/pt-tips/index.htm)
I use a 20yr old (or something along that lines) Weller TCP 24V 60W iron for all my soldering jobs with just 3 tips. THT, SMD, everything. No temp. control other than the 370°C on/off magnet in the heating element...
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My hackspace has standardised on a variety of Hakko FX-888D and Weller WES51
I believe those are fairly entry level in price, but they are quite excellent, and have handled years of pretty extreme abuse by random drop-in soldering newbies, kids, and drunk people.
And interesting newcomer is the TS100. Check out Marco Reps on Youtube for a few reviews of this one and similar versions
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