New soldering station required.

[6BW6]

I'm looking for a new soldering station, general usage, repairs, through hole and SMD components.

Now I'm looking at Weller stations, rather than buy one of their earlier models I started looking at the WD 1012 series, has anyone any thoughts on these?

I was nearly caught out buying a Atten ST station, from RS components - they are NOT temperature controlled!!!! There is only three wires in the soldering pen handle, ground and a power feed to the element, they do have one draw back the tip cools when soldering and anything but the temperature displayed.

Imagine removing a components with solder wick braid and the tip cools down, and ideal situation for the copper track to tear and rip, I can guess the sensing is done via a current shunt resistor, certainly done on-board and not in the iron. I put this to RS and have confirmed my suspicions, they also confirmed Tenma was the same.

I know Hakko is a good iron used by many, to be honest I don't like the design and it seems fiddly pressing this and that buttons and that it looks like something from Fisher Price toys, so do do, ideas anyone?

Dave

[stj]

Re: New soldering station required.

there are many threads on this,
i always recommend some chinese Hakko clone with T12 tips.
that's the important thing - T12 tips.

here is a high-end one.
http://www.circuitspecialists.eu/sol...older-station/

and a cheap one.
http://www.banggood.com/BAKON-950D-7...-p-982824.html

and a set of tips
http://www.banggood.com/T12-Series-S...-p-932701.html

and something "interesting"
http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum...hp?f=56&t=7218

[6BW6]

Re: New soldering station required.

Thanks stj, I did visit some of those links you gave, I didn't scan the pages of badcaps regarding similar threads.

You can't be too careful these day's when buying spares, I always prefer buying from the manufactures or their distributors.

Since nearly getting a Atten soldering station and finding no real temperature control I want to be extra cautious..... I've got some fake rf driver transistors here supposed to be from a 'reputable company' that started in the West.... lol, they won't even fit in a Kenwood TS2000 - nothing like the original Mitsubishi's, I later learned the die the silicon is mounted on is only quarter the size.

Dave

[stj]

Re: New soldering station required.

the T12 clones are fine,
and they are special, the heater & sensor are in the actual tip.
so you just plug the tip into the handle.

this makes them heat up very fast and keep hot even when you suddenly put them on a large part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u588...ature=youtu.be

[6BW6]

Re: New soldering station required.

..... the heater & sensor are in the actual tip.
so you just plug the tip into the handle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u588...ature=youtu.be

I thought the heater was separate. The video was pretty impressive, thanks for the link.

Dave

[stj]

Re: New soldering station required.

no. heater & sensor all combined into one.

[eccerr0r]

Re: New soldering station required.

and a cheap one.
http://www.banggood.com/BAKON-950D-7...-p-982824.html

I LOL when I saw the picture of the controller that has a label:

"Imported Large Capacitance"

pointing to the Chongx main filter capacitor...

I guess it is still technically true...

[stj]

Re: New soldering station required.

yes, but nice of them to show the guts - i wish sellers did that with more stuff!

[steviewonder]

Re: New soldering station required.

I would certainly side with a Hakko- I bought the genuine japanese one,even the power supply is very well built,And got fed up with my semi-trustworthy weller ps3D, still good,but the tcp iron is a pain for failing thermostats,and elements,not cheap either.
The Hakko is much better by comparison,being variable temp,With the weller,Temp is set by the magnastat tip fitted...Not sure on the new Weller gear,But Hakko well worth considering!

[EasyGoing1]

Re: New soldering station required.

and something "interesting"
http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum...hp?f=56&t=7218

Stj,

That is actually VERY interesting ... any idea what the cost of the parts would be? Id love to build that project.

Mike

[stj]

Re: New soldering station required.

pcb can be got from a russian guy on ebay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/tto44ka/m.html

parts are not cheap - i have read on the forum it can be as much as 70Euro