Which soldering iron do you like?

Some irons, especially the ones designed to heat up quickly, tend to loose heat quicker when working on larger components / pads (ground planes, etc).

Others, like my Pace stations, can turn off the heat when the iron is put back in the stand. I use this feature with my tweezers since they spend more time in the stand than in use, but I don't like for my iron to put itself in standby.
 
Harry Klippton said:
@andare what's with all this heat up and cool down stuff? I don't think I follow. I turn my iron on, it takes maybe 60 seconds to get up to temp, and then stays there til I turn it off or change it
Click to expand...
Turn the iron on and when it's at the right temp you solder. When I put it down and don't use it, it cools down to preserve the tip then it heats back up to working temp when I pick it up to use it again. I take many breaks so this is useful
 
Personally, I have and use a cheap little generic branded soldering iron station from MPJA-dot-com for about 22 zorkmids that I bought 5 years ago and built over 250 pedals. When I bought it, I got two extra replacement wands and duplicates of several different tips. The temperature settings are stable and so far, I've replaced the wand once and gone thru about 6 tips - my favorite tips being the chisel tip and 2mm cone-pointed tip. So for a grand total coming in under $50, I have an inexpensive soldering solution that works for me and still have another replacement wand and enough tips to me thru another 250 pedals.

I used to buy only top-shelf, expensive equipment for my electronics habit, but found I do not need all that expense to produce good work.
 
Surprised to see only one mention that I could catch (by @mdc) for the miniware and adjacent irons. I bought my first because I was limited on workspace but I'd still be hard pressed to buy something else.

I used a TS100 for a couple of years before I botched the shell trying to fix a purely cosmetic issue. I've been using a pine64 pinecil since - they fixed everything that wasn't perfect about the TS100 - buttons are better placed, has a flat edge on one side so it doesn't roll, etc. Replacement shells are easy to get still (difficult with the ts100 by the time I had wanted one).

I also have a FNIRSI T12 one that's similar (amazon link, can be found for $30 on Ali) but haven't used it much. There's another Ali iron that takes TS100 style tips and T12 in one body that I picked up and was impressed with. I've been taking my non daily to work for repairing random crap and being able to transport them in a portable hard drive case is awesome. For PCB work they're great, come to temperature very fast with an old laptop charger or decent enough USB-C charger, and they're teeny tiny to boot.
 
finebyfine said:
Surprised to see only one mention that I could catch (by @mdc) for the miniware and adjacent irons. I bought my first because I was limited on workspace but I'd still be hard pressed to buy something else.

I used a TS100 for a couple of years before I botched the shell trying to fix a purely cosmetic issue. I've been using a pine64 pinecil since - they fixed everything that wasn't perfect about the TS100 - buttons are better placed, has a flat edge on one side so it doesn't roll, etc. Replacement shells are easy to get still (difficult with the ts100 by the time I had wanted one).

I also have a FNIRSI T12 one that's similar (amazon link, can be found for $30 on Ali) but haven't used it much. There's another Ali iron that takes TS100 style tips and T12 in one body that I picked up and was impressed with. I've been taking my non daily to work for repairing random crap and being able to transport them in a portable hard drive case is awesome. For PCB work they're great, come to temperature very fast with an old laptop charger or decent enough USB-C charger, and they're teeny tiny to boot.
Click to expand...
I also have been using the TS100 for about a year now and it's great. I think I'll be buying that Pinecil though that looks even better thank you for mentioning that one.
 
Man I lucked up and bought this cheap station and it absolutely rocks... heats up to temp in a minute... I buy made in japan hakko tips for it and it does the job great.. Had it for 2 1/2 years and soldered a ton of builds. If it dies today I wouldn't be mad. I'd buy another and have money to buy more parts for builds. Merece Soldering station 65W
 
I started out with a cheap Walmart generic iron which was rated at 30 watts. I have my doubts about that. It worked fine I guess for the vero board stuff I was building, but overall it was a piece of junk. I went through two of those because the tip eroded (mostly my fault). A friend gave me his old Weller pencil that was only rated at 20 watts I think. It was obviously nicer, but the temperature just was not up to snuff. I bought an 80 watt big chisel tipped iron for soldering guitar potentiometers because those little pencils were absolutely useless for the task. Then I bought the Hakko FX888d and can't recommend it enough. The temperature adjustment procedure is absolutely stupid and convoluted, but mine is cranked around 750 degrees 99.9% of the time. Heat up fast, throw the solder on, and get the hell outta there. I was using 60/40 solder for a long time, but I got some 63/37 from Harbor Freight of all places and it heats/cools more uniformly than that 60/40 stuff I had. I'd like to try some of that no clean stuff that GOTA posted earlier. I put it on my amazon wish list.
 
I've been using my wife's curling iron. Takes about 45 minutes to get to temp but it's great if you don't care if a pedal works or not

EDIT: On a serious note, I use a Hakko FX888d. Great tool. I don't understand people's issue with setting the temp, it's super simple and the most commonly needed temps are already available as presets. Personally I just set it to 750, hit about 4-5 components worth of joints and turn it off while I place the next 4-5 components. It gets back to temp in under 15 seconds. I simplified the preset thing right outta the gate. Set it to only having 2 presets to choose from instead of all 5. One is the 750 one and the other is the recommended 482 for idling/servicing.
 
Last edited:
So, my entry-level Weller just went kaput and it’s time to get a replacement. My biggest gripe about that one was the time it took to get up to temp. And the temp never seemed consistent while it was on. Sometime it would be perfect and the solder would flow like cream, other times it was like trying to melt some rebar or something.

Between the FX888 and the WE1010, is it basically a coin flip? One looks like it’s from ikea, the other from the 80s, and I’m cool with either one.
 
KR Sound said:
So, my entry-level Weller just went kaput and it’s time to get a replacement. My biggest gripe about that one was the time it took to get up to temp. And the temp never seemed consistent while it was on. Sometime it would be perfect and the solder would flow like cream, other times it was like trying to melt some rebar or something.

Between the FX888 and the WE1010, is it basically a coin flip? One looks like it’s from ikea, the other from the 80s, and I’m cool with either one.
Click to expand...

I've had the Weller station for a few years now with regular use and it's held up fine. It's still got the original tip on it. I leave it on for hours while using it and have never had any issues. It heats up pretty quickly and maintains that heat well for my purposes.

I believe that people consider the Hakko the better station from what I've read, though it might just be by a couple of degrees. I haven't looked in a long time but I think it may heat up a bit faster. When I was making my choice, though, and doing research, I read someone say that the Hakko looked like it was made by Play-Skool and I just couldn't get that out of my head every time I saw it, so that's how I landed on the Weller. You might want to use a more scientific approach :ROFLMAO:
 
peccary said:
read someone say that the Hakko looked like it was made by Play-Skool and I just couldn't get that out of my head every time I saw it, so that's how I landed on the Weller
Click to expand...
That’s actually why I’m leaning towards the Weller, lol. Plus I saw a cool mod to add an LED that glows out the bottom when it’s turned on. So, I’m all scientisty.
 
KR Sound said:
That’s actually why I’m leaning towards the Weller, lol. Plus I saw a cool mod to add an LED that glows out the bottom when it’s turned on. So, I’m all scientisty.
Click to expand...
It’s a coin flip.

When I read the instructions for the Hakko, I knew my head would explode if I paid for it and tried to use it. I need really easy buttons. The we1010 has up and down arrows. Easy.

Heats up to 650 F in a few seconds.

Either one would be a massive upgrade
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top