New Soldering Station

Transistorized

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Did some research and many feel that this is the best bang for your buck for an entry level soldering iron station. It has so many menus and features that its unbelievable for the price. Less than 60 dollars shipped and uses interchangeable T12 tips. Gets to temp fast. Seems to work well.

20191120_163458.jpg
 

JVC Floyd

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I love it , my brother recently showed me his Milwaukee 12 volt fuel pack portable soldering iron , that thing if amazing and it heats up instantly and cools down fast , plus it can do almost any soldering job aside from soldering copper pipe. Plus it stands up by itself so you just set it aside and no base needed. Mind you its not small but it still perfectly useful.
 

Transistorized

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That sounds like a neat unit Floyd.

I was looking at a few expensive models but as someone who only solders every so often I decided a good reliable cheap model better suited my lack of experience.
 

jimmyjimmy19702010

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May 5, 2012
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Looks like a great set up. Believe it or not, the two things that seperate a good quality iron from a crappy one is the quality of the cable and the mass/stability of the iron stand. Cheap irons have stiff cables that twist up and make things more difficult than need be.

The quality machines have a soft, flexible cable that allows complete free movement of the iron itself.
 

Transistorized

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Thanks Jimmy.

The only thing I've noticed so far is that the shake feature doesn't kick it out of standby for some reason. I just push the knob and it takes off.
 

MesaAZGuy

Member (SA)
I have the Hakko (sp?) unit and it works great. Wish it would heat up just a tad hotter. I saw the Milwaukee one Floyd mentioned and almost bought it on Amazon as we do a lot of under cabinet lighting but I do not have any other cordless Milwaukee tool and thus didn't want to start on a new tool set. Your new unit looks really cool. For the money it does look like an awesome dealio. I recently picked up a butane Portasol soldering iron for UCL work. Sometimes we don't have the receptacles installed for power and I hate dragging out an extension cord. I give my guys corded irons and let them hash it out :devil:
 

Transistorized

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MesaAZGuy said:
I have the Hakko (sp?) unit and it works great. Wish it would heat up just a tad hotter. I saw the Milwaukee one Floyd mentioned and almost bought it on Amazon as we do a lot of under cabinet lighting but I do not have any other cordless Milwaukee tool and thus didn't want to start on a new tool set. Your new unit looks really cool. For the money it does look like an awesome dealio. I recently picked up a butane Portasol soldering iron for UCL work. Sometimes we don't have the receptacles installed for power and I hate dragging out an extension cord. I give my guys corded irons and let them hash it out :devil:
docs said:
I like that the wire pot has a holder, nice!
Much appreciated guys. The holder was a separate purchase and seems to work well. The brass spring seems to keep the tip clean looking.

I've been researching on how to prolong the life of my tip. Looks like you just have to keep them tinned and cleaned with a wet sponge to keep them in good shape.
 

Superduper

Member (SA)
The cheapo soldering station I've been using for 90% of my work has been in service for 3 decades, built in fume extractor, same tip, same handle, same everything except I had to repair the handle cord once. Aside from that, because soldering stations are temperature controlled, the tip doesn't cook itself to death so yes, they last a very long time. The biggest problem with standard soldering irons is that they have a certain wattage heating element but even a small 15-25 watt iron will cook the tip if left on a stand since the heater is always on. Then when you place the tip onto a workpiece, it immediately quenches and loses all heat forcing you to keep tip onto the connection for extended period of time. On controlled stations, you can set tip to a certain temperature and when it's off the work piece, temperature escalates quickly but will be throttled down automatically to prevent tip from overheating. However the moment, you put the tip to work, the (usually larger, 45 or higher watts) provides the juice the heat back up quickly without extended tip contact time. I have other better, fancier stations, but because I'm so used to this one, I find I automatically reach for it first.

As for tip, if it's a quality nickel tip, will last a long time if you just use a wet sponge and keep it tinned well. I'm so cheap that for decades (even today), I just use a folded up paper towell until it's 2" square, wetted down, and it works perfectly. Tip is 3 decades and still going.
 

JVC Floyd

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Honestly the tool I found as useful as a soldering iron is a de soldering iron with a vacuum pump , that thing is worth its weight in gold.
 

Superduper

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JVC Floyd said:
Honestly the tool I found as useful as a soldering iron is a de soldering iron with a vacuum pump , that thing is worth its weight in gold.
Totally agree Floyd. Here's mine, built in vacuum pump (no single shot bulb sucker) and the soldering iron tip is hollow allowing you to place it over a pin, until solder is completely molten, then suck it all out of there, continuously if necessary. Can hook up multiple handles at the same time. Has special handles for picking up components with a vaccum tip, has microchine (like a dremel for cutting traces, etc), can hook up hot air tip for SMD work, has ability to deposit compounds such as adhesive, tweezer tips... heck, there's literally too many accessories to list. Unfortunately, unless you are in government or military, etc, this system is simply too expensive for the average Joe. Over $5,000 new last time I checked for this system.

https://www.amazon.com/Pace-PRC-2000-Electronics-Repair/dp/B01N7HUPTJ

prc2000a.jpg

prc2000b.jpg

prc2000c.jpg
 

Jorge

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Jul 12, 2017
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SUPERDUPER, Wow!!!!!!! This is one wicked setup! What is your “cheapo soldering station? Since my son “borrowed” my Hakko soldering iron a year+ ago I am using Chinese piece of technology (but with Hakko tips!).

For when I had a Boss he used to joke that he could pay me with CDs: for $5k there is quite a few “mini-LP” CD box sets to be had!!!
 

Superduper

Member (SA)
Jorge said:
SUPERDUPER, Wow!!!!!!! This is one wicked setup! What is your “cheapo soldering station?
Ok, the cheap one that I use, for almost 90% of my work is this Wahl Solmax. I bought it probably 30 years ago, still works as well today as day one. Nothing fancy, no digital temp display since that didn't exist 30 years ago, just simple analog dial to select temperature and an LED to indicate whether tip is in heat or idle mode. Still same handle, same tips, etc. It just plain works. As you can see, the fan is quite beefy and as you may guess, is noisy compared to the fan-less systems. There is a carbon impregnated pad that goes over the fan which supposed to absorb the fumes but I've stopped putting in new filters decades ago when I ran out and while I'm sure it no longer actually absorbs fumes anymore (unless I want to buy more charcoal impregnated foam), it's still effective because it draws fumes away so I'm not breathing it direct. Wahl doesn't make these anymore but someone seems to have purchased the rights because I still see new ones today under various names offering this exact same thing for sale. A well known brand (Xytronic) is selling this unit with different model number but it looks exactly the same so I'm sure it is, in fact, even though Wahl brand is not mentioned, the solmax name is still present on the Xytronic model. If mine ever breaks, I think I'll probably still buy another one simply due to my experience with this and the fact I know it lasts almost forever.

wahl_1.jpg

wahl_2.jpg
 

JVC Floyd

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Transistorized said:
Did some research and many feel that this is the best bang for your buck for an entry level soldering iron station. It has so many menus and features that its unbelievable for the price. Less than 60 dollars shipped and uses interchangeable T12 tips. Gets to temp fast. Seems to work well.

20191120_163458.jpg
that's leaps and bounds past any soldering iron I have , hell I buy those cheap torch lighters at dollar general to solder with lol.
 

Transistorized

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Jun 19, 2012
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JVC Floyd said:
Did some research and many feel that this is the best bang for your buck for an entry level soldering iron station. It has so many menus and features that its unbelievable for the price. Less than 60 dollars shipped and uses interchangeable T12 tips. Gets to temp fast. Seems to work well.

20191120_163458.jpg
that's leaps and bounds past any soldering iron I have , hell I buy those cheap torch lighters at dollar general to solder with lol.
Thanks Floyd. I am so eager to try this thing out. I'm tempted to buy a kit radio that you solder together. That would be neat.

As for superduper. OMG! That one unit is an impressive soldering station. That thing looks as if you could lay a board down in front of it and simply walk away. Come back in 10 minutes and the project has been diagnosed, fixed and assembled for you...lol.
 

BoomboxLover48

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Dec 3, 2010
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Superduper said:
SUPERDUPER, Wow!!!!!!! This is one wicked setup! What is your “cheapo soldering station?
Ok, the cheap one that I use, for almost 90% of my work is this Wahl Solmax. I bought it probably 30 years ago, still works as well today as day one. Nothing fancy, no digital temp display since that didn't exist 30 years ago, just simple analog dial to select temperature and an LED to indicate whether tip is in heat or idle mode. Still same handle, same tips, etc. It just plain works. As you can see, the fan is quite beefy and as you may guess, is noisy compared to the fan-less systems. There is a carbon impregnated pad that goes over the fan which supposed to absorb the fumes but I've stopped putting in new filters decades ago when I ran out and while I'm sure it no longer actually absorbs fumes anymore (unless I want to buy more charcoal impregnated foam), it's still effective because it draws fumes away so I'm not breathing it direct. Wahl doesn't make these anymore but someone seems to have purchased the rights because I still see new ones today under various names offering this exact same thing for sale. A well known brand (Xytronic) is selling this unit with different model number but it looks exactly the same so I'm sure it is, in fact, even though Wahl brand is not mentioned, the solmax name is still present on the Xytronic model. If mine ever breaks, I think I'll probably still buy another one simply due to my experience with this and the fact I know it lasts almost forever.

wahl_1.jpg

wahl_2.jpg
I need to buy this one.
 

Ghettoboom767

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May 6, 2009
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Super cool soldering stations!! I need one of those cheaper ones! Very nice set up Norm!😊😎📻