Choosing a soldering station

[timelessbeing]

My cheapie pencil iron is really showing its age, and I find it seriously underpowered when working with more massive stuff. I want to replace it with something nice that is pleasant to work with, and lasts a long time.

Here are some products I've been considering:
- Weller WES51, $110 CAD
- Weller WESD51, $140 CAD
- Hakko FX-888, $110 CAD

What is the difference between the analog and digital Weller? Is it just the temperature readout and is that worth the extra $30?

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

[smason]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

I'd probably lean toward the Weller 51, but either that or the Hakko would do nicely.
IMHO the digital readout is just a gimmick, really not needed.
$110 seems a tad high even for Canada.

[timelessbeing]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

$110 seems a tad high even for Canada.

That was the price from Active electronics (local) which the same as if I got it shipped from Digikey. If anybody knows a good dealer, that helps too.

By the way, the Wellers are 50 Watt and the Hakko is 65W.

[timelessbeing]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

I'm liking the Hakko more and more.
- it comes with a chisel tip (better than conical for heat transfer)
- led that turns green when temp is stabilized. don't need to stinkin readout :P
- compact base station that doesn't look outdated.
and I found a local supplier who would sell it to me for $100. (Interior Electronics)

Picking it up today!

[timelessbeing]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

I gave my new FX-888 a try yesterday...

The station is roughly the size of an old-school pencil sharpener, and feels very sturdy. The stand is anodized aluminum and also feels robust. The hole for the pencil fits snugly and only makes contact with the collar, so no heat is lost. The brass wire tip cleaner is a nice touch. I'm not sure what the rubber scraper is good for yet. The pencil is very well made. It's light and has a comfortable grip that doesn't get hot even at 500°C. The cord is supple so you don't notice it's there, and has silicone rubber boot. The connector seats in smoothly into the station.

It has plenty of power and excellent heat stability. It gets up to operating temperature in under a minute, and holds it very steady even when melting big blogs of solder. Cool-down is slow but who cares.

I used the thermocouple temperature probe of my multimeter (2% accuracy) to test the temperature. The outside of the heater was yellowed so it must have been turned on, and I expected the dial to be calibrated from the factory but it was out by quite a bit. Following the calibration procedure, I set the dial to 350°C, but my probe barely registered 300°C. I used the included tool to turn the pot clockwise until it heated up to 350. The adjustment is incredibly sensitive so it took a few tries, and it took less than a quarter turn. While I had the equipment out, I decided to try a couple more setpoints:
200°C (min) - probe read approx 215°C
480°C (max) - probe read roughly 472 and rose very slowly as if it was struggling.

So far I'm happy with it. I'd be happy to answer any questions if anybody is else considering getting one.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

That rubber thing is just a protector so you don't scrape up the metal base after removing the tip from the brass shavings probably.

[smason]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

That was the price from Active electronics (local)

That's actually pretty good for Active. Oddly their soldering gear isn't nearly as inflated price-wise as most of their stuff.

Glad you like it. I quite like my Hakko 936, got it for free, had to replace the elemtent recently.

[paul_h]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Hi, I'm looking for a budget soldering station as well. Around here in Australia everything under $100 is chinese junk, and name brands like weller or hakko start at $200+ here.

I know that both the wes51 and hakko fx888 are on amazon for about $85, and so far I checked the weller, and they will ship it to me for $16, so that one is about $100 delivered.
I don't know if they will ship the hakko though, haven't looked into it too much yet, as it's not a direct amazon sale, but they are just the agent so possibly not.
But before I go looking and searching for someone on amazon that will ship the hakko, what are the tip availability for this model Hakko?

One thing that is turning me off the weller is the availability of tips locally (and cost), and no one overseas or on amazon that will sell overseas for weller tips.

I've read elsewhere on this site that pcbonz mentioned a chinese seller for tips for the larger older 936 hakko, but does the fx-888 take the same tips or does that chinese seller sell tips for that model as well?

[mariushm]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Dealextreme has the Chinese version of the Hakko FX 888 for 115$

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/hanko-f...ac-220v-126505

I haven't tested it personally but it looks too accurate (including the labels and parts) to be a fake.

The T18 tips (fx-888) can be easily found in various places for 5-10$ a piece, no need for ebay or other more "risky" sellers. See Sparkfun, Tequipment : http://www.tequipment.net/HakkoFX888-Tips.html etc...

Yes, the T18 solder tips are compatible with the 900M (Hakko 936 and others) tips. If anything, the new tips will be a few degrees of temperature off, as the FX-888 is a 65w iron while the 936 as far as I know is a 60w one.

I bought 3 different tips for my 936 a few weeks ago.

As much as I trust PCBonez, I couldn't find any contact information on that page he recommended (wanted to mail them to get a price for several different tips bundle) and didn't get an answer from the eBay store I thought belonged to the same company, so in the end I got a few tips from another seller... this one:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/TradeBuddy-...sub=3167317011

I got
2 x 900M-T-B
2 x 900M-T-3C
2 x 900M-T-K

for 16$, free shipping, after talking to him through messages.

I'm not 100% sure they're genuine Hakko tips but they look very good and they're like in the pictures he has. If you want, I can make some close-up pictures of them, still have them in the original packaging.

[paul_h]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

I think everything at deal extreme is a fake though.

I took a gamble on the fluke 17b multimeter as a back up / home meter. i don't know if its supposed to be that slow? it's acurate compared to my old 87 iii, but takes half a second or longer to get a reading? My mention of that in a review was moderated and not put up there. Plus nearly every battery they sell with a name brand has poor results compared to legit ones.
I'd rather buy from amazon as I already have a step down transformer for cordless tools I buy from the US. that is unless you can tell me a 300w step down transformer is not enough for a soldering station, if so, then I'll have to come up with another plan. I was going to see if amazon UK sells any soldering stations that are 240v but the site seems down for me. My ADSL modem is dead so I have a very slow unreliable net connection right now.

[retiredcaps]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

I think everything at deal extreme is a fake though.

DealExtreme does sell some fake capacitors. Whether they know it or not and acknowledge it is another matter.

I took a gamble on the fluke 17b multimeter as a back up / home meter. i don't know if its supposed to be that slow? it's acurate compared to my old 87 iii, but takes half a second or longer to get a reading?

I saw a review of this Fluke 18B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj2WfEMveyU

and the reviewer mentioned that the autorange speed was slow.

You have to remember that the 17B is meant to be sold in China only and not for export. I also considered getting a new Flue 17B, but since it was meant for China only, there would be no warranty available to me in Canada. So I ended buying used Flukes for significantly less than a new 17B. All my used ones have faster response than the 17B.

My mention of that in a review was moderated and not put up there.

Another member here posted that he received fake capacitors and that review never made it on their forum. It looks like the government isn't the only form of censorship.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...t=16344&page=2

Plus nearly every battery they sell with a name brand has poor results compared to legit ones.

I bought some BTY brand batteries a couple of years ago from ebay (not DealExtreme) and the latest batch are very very poor quality. They weigh 1/4 of Eneloop and get about 1/8th the run time. I just stick to Eneloops now.

My ADSL modem is dead so I have a very slow unreliable net connection right now.

Have you opened the ADSL modem and its adapter and checked for bad caps?

[999999999]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Many things on DX are fakes, but the Fluke 15B & 17B look too close to the real thing to be fake IMO. I have one (not bought from DX) and it is a little slow but not painfully so.

I've bought the Hakko tips off ebay before, some of them do seem to be genuine and I got a good deal paying about $14 for a variety pack of 10. Basically the seller bought 10 packs of 10 different tip shapes then put 10 different tips in each pack to resell which was exactly what I wanted. The genuine Hakko 10 packs aren't very cheap on ebay right now but they are in a thick plastic pouch and a blue and white cardboard insert label and look like this, except the labeled part # may change. This is just random pic off ebay not of mine:



However on ebay there are a lot of tips sold as "for Hakko" that aren't and don't claim to be made by Hakko.

[retiredcaps]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Many things on DX are fakes, but the Fluke 15B & 17B look too close to the real thing to be fake IMO.

I don't know of any counterfeit Fluke multimeters. However, there are imitators like this one

http://www.tmart.com/YH112-Mini-LVD-...r_p142919.html

It looks like a Fluke 15B, 17B, 18B etc with the same shape, color, rotary dial, etc.

If the above imitator were a bit cheaper (like $10), I would get one just to tear it apart and see what is inside it.

For their asking price of $41, however, I can get a real used Fluke.

[paul_h]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

OK, thanks for the info about the fluke 17b, maybe it is genuine.
So I will buy the hakko fx888 from them as it saves me carrying around a step down transformer everywhere.

LOL
http://www.hakko.com/english/company...erty/news.html

[retiredcaps]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

So I will buy the hakko fx888 from them as it saves me carrying around a step down transformer everywhere.

See

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/product...-888-replica)/

[999999999]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Let's back up a bit and consider something else. Is it really in our best interests to let China be the middleman receiving the profit?

Yeah, I opened a big can of worms, but I'm not comfortable with it given the choice...

[paul_h]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Did some more searching and found a local retailer anyway. An extra $50 over DX, but worth it as higher chance it's genuine and I won't have to wait weeks for it to get here.
I can live with paying and extra $50 (and free postage from them too), for genuine with warranty etc.
Local people need jobs I guess as well.

Let's back up a bit and consider something else. Is it really in our best interests to let China be the middleman receiving the profit?

Yeah, I opened a big can of worms, but I'm not comfortable with it given the choice...

Well I went off deal extreme because they charge too much for some things, so they taking the piss and making huge profits.
There was an electrcians insulated screwdriver set on there for $55. I could walk down the street and buy the same for $30. If local businesses with a shop front and high rent/electricity/employee costs charge $30 and make a profit, how much profit would DX make at $55?

I was only looking at overseas sources because RS listing the fx888 at $176 + 10% tax, and tips were $15 ea
The place I found just then was $150+ tax, $8 ea for tips and free delivery, I can live with that. A good soldering station local with warranty and fast delivery for $165 is cheaper than a $115 rip off if the DX one is a clone or breaks down, ie potentially less money wasted.


Everything here is usually double the USA price, it used to because the $au was worth us 0.70c, and the rest shipping costs, running costs and profit.
But really with the high $au, prices should drop by 30% and they haven't.

[timelessbeing]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

My only problem with this station is the tip. Solder seems to ball up at the top of the tinned area, instead of at end where you need it.

[999999999]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

^ That's usually a sign that it's time to clean the tip.

[timelessbeing]

Re: Choosing a soldering station

Pardon me, balling was the wrong word to use. The tip is perfectly clean. The solder is just being attracted to the hottest part of the tip-- the copper core-- which is thicker further away from the tip. Good for tip life, not so good for wettability. It's not bad at 350degC but it gets worse if you have to turn the heat up.