I'm considering getting a new soldering station and I notice the cheaper ones receive good reviews. Does anyone have experience or recommendations? I'm worried about longevity I don't want to repeatedly buy the same item, while at the same time I do not want to overpay if the cheaper ones work as long.
You soldering moped wires only or are you working on computer boards?
if its just wires and stuff, id get the cheapest thing that gets hot.
Microelectronics, I like to repair TVs and stuff I find on the side of the road. I got my dad a really nice sony. I gave away a 65" Toshiba maybe, I can't remember except that it was name brand.
I am kind of leaning towards just spending the money on the good one I think. That way it would have resale value and not be a gamble.
Also ironically the last moped related soldering I should have done, I chose not to. I installed a pw50 coil in a qt and I just used wire and screws. I wish I would have taken pictures for the next guy that runs across the same problem.
Some would maybe say an inferior repair, but I bet it is still working.
that sounds like a solid plan. Doing tight work with junky equipment just doesnt mix.
Being able to set your heat range is always important when soldering on electronic boards to not have cold solder joints or damage the board
Yup, so hopefully the good one will be one less thing for me to worry about. I'm not an expert and a badly calibrated unit would probably just lead to my confusion.
I've had a metal for 20 years. fine pitch to 4 gauge. left it on unattended. it still works fine. only weakness is where wand plugs in its gotten sloppy. probably my pulling it.
Alot of people aren't going to like this...the shitty cheap yihua stations from eBay or aliexpress are just fine. Yes, the calibration can be off by like 50 deg but thats easily remedied with a thermocouple and turn of the adjustment screw.
My main station is a metcal like π has. But it's kinda over kill for what I do. Can I trust it? Yes, but I'm not gonna go hog wild with temperature anyway. I have a cheap little yihua that was spot on in temp with 1/8 of a turn to the adjustment. Uses hakko tips elements and we'll whole irons if you wanted. Stay away from the 2in1 rework stations with the hot air gun. Only bad experience with those.
I work with old tube stuff, mostly point to point wiring. The station is sort of pointless for that, I'm gonna use my big weller gun, or my 175w big kachunka-chunka for stuff like tabbed in shields or chassis soldering. You need alot of heat when you can only heat the leads or are soldered directly to the chassis.
Now if I get ANYTHING with boards, especially the old phenolic thu hole. I'm pulling out the station.
Main point, the Chinese stations can be fine. This is the one I've been using for years now.
Check out technitool.com, they have dolder stations, and all acessories for different soldering. Weller is a good solder station. You may want one suitable SMT desoldering if your working on modern boards.
I got this one in August and have used it over a dozen times so far. I like it. I used some really expensive high end soldering stations in undergrad and this feels close enough that I'm very happy with it
That hakko is soooooo nice!!!
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