Soldering Station under 20 bucks

[Visus]

I just read the OKR thread and saw someone didn't have funds for a good soldering station.

Well in comes China's cloning system and you get a clone of a really good soldering station for cheap with thumbs down/ and up from the man himself Dave @EEVBLOG on youtube heres the review.  Dave's an electronics snob but he shows it on the scope and its identical to a hakko 936..  Neither are the best but for our purposes its the bomb..  @ 23:00 he shows the difference with an expensive iron like Craighb chats about its a beast at much lower temps lol...



Heres the station
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__19240__soldering_station_with_adjustable_heat_range_usa_warehouse_.html

Buy good tips and its the best hobby,  work, solder station, period-- for the money.

R/C guys love this solder station,  everyone on the r/c forums gives it a thumbs up and you can calibrate it ..

[CraigHB]

That Hobby King is amazing, they have stuff for crazy low prices.  I bet that station sells for a lot more elsewhere. 

Next time someone says they don't want to spend the money for a brand name station, that's the one to direct them to.  It's probably no worse than the other Chinese made stations you find for $40 or $50 elsewhere.  Funny though, I pay more for the more expensive Hakko tip I like (BR-02) than the cost of that whole station. 

The reviewer pretty much says it all, but yeah, at least it's a lot better than one of those 25W soldering pencils and about the same price.  The thermal performance isn't great, but like he said, just turn up the temperature.  It's probably not going to be an issue for smaller connections, that one he was testing on was a lot heavier that would you would do typically.

The reviewer has a real beef against conical tips, but I have to disagree with him there.  The problem with conical tips is they're too long, not that they're conical.  If you use a short conical tip (like the BR-02), they work fine and can do the smallest of components, which the chisel tips can have a hard time with.

[Visus]

I thought it unfair that he didn't use the factory installed conical tip at least try it.
Yeah its an awesome unit for our purpose.  Its longevity is at question with rusty components..
But what do I know it may last a lifetime.. 

I like conical tips too, meh' 

For 16 bucks and it does regulate temps-- its a really cool looking, working,  unit..

[Boonos]

i have this one from hobby king. it serves me fine. theres a comparison review somewhere on youtube and it holds up really well with the authentic/original one

[Visus]

i have this one from hobby king. it serves me fine. theres a comparison review somewhere on youtube and it holds up really well with the authentic/original one

Um ok, cool,  theres a video on this post shows it under a microscope but yeah, do you have a link I really wanna see it in action with a factory tip.

Found it...
Its been discontinued, so hobbyking is probably the only place to get them.  Now we know why so inexpensive.. Looks like a decent iron; for the money its awesome

[Boonos]

yea thats the vid 

sorry would of searched and posted but am work.

[CraigHB]

I thought it unfair that he didn't use the factory installed conical tip at least try it.
Yeah its an awesome unit for our purpose.  Its longevity is at question with rusty components..
But what do I know it may last a lifetime.

I could probably wear it out pretty fast.  I can do *a lot* of soldering when assembling PCBs by hand.  I've probably gone through five or six 1 lb rolls of solder in the last 10 years.  I wouldn't go for a station like that since I use the crap out of my irons, but for someone that just wants to build a few mods with off the shelf parts, it's probably more than sufficient.

That tip looked pretty crappy that it came with.  I bet it wouldn't work well at all.  It's one of those long conical ones and those are bad because they lose too much heat at the end of the tip.  The standard Hakko tips are about $6 so it's definitely worth it to buy a good short chisel tip.  The chisel tips are best really, but they fail at really small components so if you're not assembling PCBs, the chisel tips are cheap and work the best.

http://www.hmcelectronics.com has the best prices I've found on tips, but shipping gets you.  Just get some solder and flux along with that to make it worth the shipping cost.  This is the tip I would recommend; http://www.hmcelectronics.com/product/Hakko/T18D12

[Visus]

If you saw what I use as a soldering station, this station is like a rolls royce but I am decent at using it.





   My baby

[Boonos]

Craig, thats awesome, thanks for the link to the tip. the one thing I've noticed is the lack of heat at the very tip which makes me use the side of it more and then i worry about applying heat too close to other parts on the board. will purchase now

[Visus]

A good method for the tip losing heat is make sure its clean, tinned, wiped off,  then again tinned wet before soldering, it gives a thermal runway.   Also of course give it enough time to come to temps. 

Shockingly that gun soldering iron, I can adjust the temp by moving in  or out the rod element, tip is always hot and wet to the very point,  I did hack it with a better heavy ac cord but yeah  its really a cool  iron for automotive shiz lol-- It actually cost more than this unit http://www.ebay.com/itm/30-Watt-110-Volts-Pistol-Solder-Soldering-Iron-Type-Gun-With-Tip-Stand-/121329997260?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3fd4d5cc@35 bucks but mine is over 30 yrs old lol.   I need an iron  for getting into really tight spaces, I eventually am going with a recommended by Craig and others  top of the line unit,  they come with multiple tips on some deals too,  my future has me soldering a lot of stuffs..

[CraigHB]

I eventually am going with a recommended by Craig and others  top of the line unit,  they come with multiple tips on some deals too,  my future has me soldering a lot of stuffs..

I've been an electronics buff since I was a kid, got my first soldering iron when I was still in elementary school.  I've used some really crappy irons in my time, from one of those beast Weller guns to lots of different soldering pencils.  Of course electronics have changed a lot over the decades, my first big electronics project had vacuum tubes so you use the tools for the job.  With modern electronics, you really need a good soldering tool.  Things are generally so small now and have limited tolerance to heat.

In any case, I can say the $100 you spend on a name brand station will be the best $100 you could spend.  Of course, some people just can't bear to spend any more than they have to.  If you're really stuck between a rock and hard place, a cheap station may serve you well, but it's going to be worth the money for a quality station even if you're not using it all the time.

The quality on the Hakko FX888D I have is really impressive, though I still prefer my Weller WESD51 and it's about 50% more expensive.  It only has a slight edge on the Hakko in terms of soldering performance, but the quality feels considerably better on the Hakko.