Soldering Iron/Kit reccomendation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nashville Riff Co
  • Start date Start date
Jack Luminous said:
Weller WS81 is the standard but it's not cheap.

F4310367-01
Click to expand...
This is what I use. I’ve always been a weller guy but used Hakko at work and in college. I prefer the analog knob over digital buttons. I’ve dropped it off a table and it still works flawlessly.
 
If you’re looking for cheap cheap cheap, I have a temperature controlled one I got a couple years ago called WEP 926, it takes hakko tips and works great on PCB’s, guitars, etc. I’ve seen the same one with different brand/model names online.

I figured I would replace it with the hakko fx888d when it eventually broke but it’s still going. Kinda wish hakko didn’t have that ‘fisher price babby’s first soldering station’ look though.

IMG_9632.jpeg

Gottta love the engrish
IMG_9633.jpeg
 
glpg80 said:
This is what I use. I’ve always been a weller guy but used Hakko at work and in college. I prefer the analog knob over digital buttons. I’ve dropped it off a table and it still works flawlessly.
Click to expand...

All pro electronic guys and repairmen around me use this exact model. I've always seen it in almost every workshop I visited.
 
Jack Luminous said:
All pro electronic guys and repairmen around me use this exact model. I've always seen it in almost every workshop I visited.
Click to expand...
I’ve had mine for over 20 years. Still running strong. My wand is padded though - the wand on that one looks like they’ve cheapened it up a bit. I recommend the felt wand if you’re going to be doing a lot of soldering. No one likes plastic imprints on your fingers after hours of going at it.
 
I'm a fan of the metcal stuff myself, which can occasionally be found relatively cheaply on ebay. May also be labeled OKi, OK International, and OK Industries. I scored a MFR-1100 power supply with the MFR-H1-SC2 hand piece and several tips for $35 bucks at a moving sale, and it's been awesome to use so far. The tips seem to be robust and have a decent life span, or at least I haven't needed a replacement tip yet nor noticed significant wear. It heats up super fast, fast enough that I can turn it off/on in between solder joints while I check my work and it doesn't cause any appreciable slow-down, and it can dump a bunch of heat into a work piece.

The main downsides are 1) it's not cheap if you don't score a good used deal, 2) the tips operate off some fancy physics where there is a chunk of metal in the tip that only takes energy from the power supply if it's below the temperature the tip is designed to work at. This means that it's pretty good at responding to temperature changes and heats quickly, but you also need to change tips to change temperature. For amps and other stuff I haven't found this to be a problem, I usually can just use one tip (set at 370C I think?) for almost everything, but if you know you'll need to change temperature a bunch of times then it starts getting costly to buy multiple tips.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top