New to the game!

[MDW]

Hello all, I just signed up. I’m looking to start building pedals as a hobby for this winter. I did some google search and this site looks pretty cool, I have absolutely nothing to start. As you’re reading this you might think “ why the hell this as a project if you don’t solder at all!”
well screw it! Looks cool to me.
So let’s start from the very beginning.

what would be a good solder station and rework station to begin with. I don’t care about price, I care about good equipment! Thanks in advance.

 

[spi]

Hello.

I have a Weller WES51. I'm really happy with it--before that I had a couple of pen soldering irons but they weren't that great. Having a station with adjustable temperature is key, and Weller seems to be good quality and well known brand.

I think this model is now out of production, but I'd take a look at Weller's current offerings. It looks like WE1010 is the replacement for the WES51. You can definitely buy more expensive models (this is like the entry level ), but I'm not even sure what the extra expense gives you, as this hasn't lacked anything I needed to do for pedal building.

 

[jubal81]

Hakko 888 would be my suggestion. Amazing bargain for about $100.

 

[Barry]

I think you got your 2 best options already

 

[burger-patty-and-bacon]

Don't skimp on the goods, buy the good stuff. Spend the money where it is needed and don't try to save a few bucks. I have an XTRONIC but HAKKO is also great.

I have been doing electronics and soldering for 30 years but only started doing pedals 2 months ago and have already built 5 with many more planned, all will come from this site. It is the coolest thing possible and this site rules - it's a great feeling to fire up your creation and have it worked right away and sound great. These pedals SOUND GREAT, dude. I don't have any more commercial pedals expect a TC Plethora and a soon to be fixed Nova Delay. My first build was a Face Melter, then I did a Dirty Shirley, then a PLUMES, then a Catacylsm delay and just finished (after long wait from Tayda) a Revv G3 clone. If you have NEVER SOLDERED BEFORE, you need to watch youtube videos and practice a lot or you will not have good success.

 

[Chris420]

Im thinking of trying one of these after seeing some decent reviews. Has anyone had any good or badd experiences with this type of iron?

 

[fig]

Im thinking of trying one of these after seeing some decent reviews. Has anyone had any good or badd experiences with this type of iron?

I've never used one, but for me, a pistol-type setup probably wouldn't work. The Weller is a solid choice, as is the Hakko. Neither ever failed me. I use a Pace ADS200, because I like the warm-up/recovery speed, and the hot-swappable tips.

 

[Big Monk]

I've really love my 40w Weller:

Weller 40-Watt LED Soldering Iron Kit SP40NKUS - The Home Depot

The Weller SP40NKUS Standard Duty LED Soldering Iron Kit has co-molded soft grip ribbed handle design for maximum comfort and reduced slippage. The wire connection is less than 12-AWG. The high-performance

www.homedepot.com

I bought a 10 pack of replacement tips on Amazon that are far and away better than the ones that came with the Weller and after 6 months or so, I'm still using one of them.

Invest in a good size spool of solder, tip tinner, and brass scrubbies.

 

[BuddytheReow]

I'll be the cheap @ss here.

Got this about a year ago. $11 from Amazon. Not the greatest, but I can get the job done and has variable temp control. Dozens of hours (maybe hundreds now) of use and still going strong. Not sure how reliable those numbers are on the dial, but I can tweak it to hotter or colder. A lot of the other stuff it came with was kinda cool too (tweezers, heat shrink, etc.)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XKZVG8Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you're just getting your feet wet I would go this route rather than dropping $ on a big ticket item/hobby you may not like once you get into it.

 

[Chris420]

I've never used one, but for me, a pistol-type setup probably wouldn't work. The Weller is a solid choice, as is the Hakko. Neither ever failed me. I use a Pace ADS200, because I like the warm-up/recovery speed, and the hot-swappable tips.

Awesome!

 

[JamieJ]

I'll be the cheap @ss here.

Got this about a year ago. $11 from Amazon. Not the greatest, but I can get the job done and has variable temp control. Dozens of hours (maybe hundreds now) of use and still going strong. Not sure how reliable those numbers are on the dial, but I can tweak it to hotter or colder. A lot of the other stuff it came with was kinda cool too (tweezers, heat shrink, etc.)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XKZVG8Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you're just getting your feet wet I would go this route rather than dropping $ on a big ticket item/hobby you may not like once you get into it.

+1 for me too. I bought this 4 years ago and it’s still going strong other than 2 new tips. I will invest in a good one when this fails but for now it works great.

 

[uranium_jones]

Like @burger-patty-and-bacon, I have an X-tronic, the X-Tronic 3060 Pro. You get a lot of extras if you get the more expensive setup. It's especially nice to have all the different solder tips. I am not sure why Hakko gets the majority of recommendations around here, but I'm sure that's another good brand as well.