Author Topic: Going to buy a soldering station  (Read 12832 times)

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Offline UberStrike88Topic starter

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #25 on: October 23, 2014, 05:46:29 pm »
Thanks for the help guys!
I'll get a 888D later on but for now i want to complete a project of me
So i think i'm going to buy the knock of and then i'm going to get a real hakko!
Thanks for all the tips given !
 

Online wraper

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #26 on: October 23, 2014, 06:13:28 pm »
As Kostas said it is a good idea to order a chisel tip, something like 3 mm. Stock tip is good enough only for a small job, end not the best tip even for that.
 

Offline UberStrike88Topic starter

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #27 on: October 23, 2014, 06:49:37 pm »
Will order those tips tomorrow.
But i can't find real ones(atleast i think that they are fake)
Do you have a link for me where to buy the real ones?
 

Offline Kostas

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #28 on: October 23, 2014, 09:59:23 pm »
Will order those tips tomorrow.
But i can't find real ones(atleast i think that they are fake)
Do you have a link for me where to buy the real ones?

I'm not sure if you'd like to buy a genuine Hakko tip if your budget only allows you to buy a 20 euro soldering station...  :( This seems to be a real chisel Hakko tip (1,6 mm wide), but it will cost you about 22$. On the other hand, a lesser quality clone like this beveled tip costs less than 2$ and you don't have to break the piggy bank.  Ok, it's not as good, but it's usable and much better than the standard conical tip. Just make sure to tin it from the first use and keep a blob of solder on it when not in use. This will take care of oxidation. Use leaded solder, but avoid using any corrosive fluxes. This should give you at least a reasonable tip life.
 

Offline Rasz

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #29 on: October 24, 2014, 12:43:53 am »
The cheap stations are built to a price point at the extreme, so what kind of quality do you really think you're going to get for 20EUR?  :o  :-BROKE I see it as a penny wise, pound stupid situation.

fact is this 20euro station will work just fine and deliver 90% of genuine hakko experience, certainly a LOT better than Conrad triac dimmer joke one
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Offline Robyn

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #30 on: October 24, 2014, 01:05:17 am »
Does anyone know if this atten solder tips, fit to the hakko936  with the 907 Iron handle?
They cost each  ~5€ . http://www.batronix.com/shop/soldering/tips.html

My pcb is a genuine hakko 936 pcb. the 907 iron handle is one from china for 5,5$  and it does not make the job very well. I want to change  to a better  tip  and perhaps a better heating Element.
Does  the  Atten  AT980D Heating Element, 4 wire  fit? ( The Hakko is 4 wire)
http://www.batronix.com/shop/soldering/accessory.html
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #31 on: October 24, 2014, 01:50:28 am »
I'm not sure if you'd like to buy a genuine Hakko tip if your budget only allows you to buy a 20 euro soldering station...  :(
Saw genuine Hakko chisel tips on Batterfly for 5EUR. Unfortunately, the shipping cost alone ruins it (16.66EUR to the OP).

So for a cheap station to be used as a stop-gap solution, such as the units at HobbyKing, the cheap tips make better financial sense.

One area I would highly recommend you not cut corners on, would be the rest of your supplies (solder, extra flux, and wick). Bad results from no-name cheap supplies can cost you more money in damaged boards & components than you save, not to mention and the aggravation that accompanies it. Cheap supplies really aren't worth it, even for the most budget conscious. Solder is where you'll take a hit (initially expensive, but lasts a really long time). 250g sizes exist from reputable brands, which will make this easier on your wallet to get started.

fact is this 20euro station will work just fine and deliver 90% of genuine hakko experience, certainly a LOT better than Conrad triac dimmer joke one
Work better than the triac dimmer + fire stick? Absolutely.  :-+ But keep in mind, the OP was looking to blow that 20EUR on one of these.  :o

But that 20EUR temperature controlled station is going to struggle in instances the genuine article doesn't however. The Hakko has more power (50W vs. 35W), and there's also improved thermal transfer to consider. 

90% of the experience of a quality station? YMMV, but I'm not convinced it's that high. Especially when I think about hot handles during extended use (iron is on 1hr +). Stiff cords come in second on a nuisance factor for me.

Financially speaking, the repair/replacement costs add up, consuming at least some of the savings. Possibly to the point it's even more expensive than a quality entry level station over the latters lifespan. Especially here in the US due to pricing. Might take longer in the EU, but it appears the argument still holds from what I've read here.

Does anyone know if this atten solder tips, fit to the hakko936  with the 907 Iron handle?
They cost each  ~5€ . http://www.batronix.com/shop/soldering/tips.html

My pcb is a genuine hakko 936 pcb. the 907 iron handle is one from china for 5,5$  and it does not make the job very well. I want to change  to a better  tip  and perhaps a better heating Element.
Does  the  Atten  AT980D Heating Element, 4 wire  fit? ( The Hakko is 4 wire)
http://www.batronix.com/shop/soldering/accessory.html
Tips will fit.

IICR, the two different 4wire heating elements have different resistance values (fit mechanically). Can't recall which one is which. But why not get an original Hakko element (P/N = A1321) if you've an original 936 PCB?
 

Offline rqsall

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #32 on: October 24, 2014, 06:04:56 am »
This place in The Netherlands: http://soldeerpunt.nl/ claims to sell genuine hakko tips. I have been using the 0.8mm conical that came with my aoyue until now and it's usable, but a chisel/screwdriver tip would probably be better. However, I will buy a genuine hakko tip from this place shortly, if only to see if they're all that everyone says they're cracked up to be. They say they'll ship tips in a normal envelope, so the shipping charges will be lower than the listed standard shipping costs which are about 8 euro incl. vat.

If I'd known about the hakko 888D on batterfly my choice would have been harder, but I probably still would have gone for the aoyue. I don't regret my purchase at all.

I would still go for the slightly more expensive aoyue than the 15 euro yihua on hobbyking, fair chance you won't have to save up for a hakko in a long time. This is relevant in my opinion, because the hakko 888D is discontinued as far as I understand and by the time you've saved enough batterfly might not have them anymore.

On a sidenote, suggesting hakko and/or "get a used one from ebay" to a person on a budget from The Netherlands is pretty much useless advice. Although undoubtedly everyone that gives this advise means well, personally, it's still a source of mild irritation. All that's available on the local used market is 30 year old Wellers of which you seriously need to critically wonder what the reason for selling is. And don't get me started on the asking prices.

Good luck.
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #33 on: October 24, 2014, 03:19:56 pm »
On a sidenote, suggesting hakko and/or "get a used one from ebay" to a person on a budget from The Netherlands is pretty much useless advice.
Regarding used, what about looking outside of the Netherlands, such as Germany?
 

Offline rqsall

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #34 on: October 25, 2014, 06:44:51 am »
On a sidenote, suggesting hakko and/or "get a used one from ebay" to a person on a budget from The Netherlands is pretty much useless advice.
Regarding used, what about looking outside of the Netherlands, such as Germany?

On the face of it, that's a reasonable suggestion, and when I was looking for one I tracked it for a few weeks, however there are several hurdles.

There's virtually no Hakko on the used market anywhere in Europe (one FX-951 on ebay.de right now at EUR 215 "buy it now") as far as I can tell. It's 90% Weller and the rest is mostly Ersa. The average asking prices for 30 year old Wellers is well... significantly above the OPs budget certainly and those can be had inside The Netherlands also. Then the next issue with ebay.de is that a very large part of the sellers won't ship outside Germany or guaranteed German speaking countries like Austria. Now I have it on good authority that they can often be persuaded to ship to The Netherlands, but that requires you can communicate somewhat comfortably in German. Besides that, the shipping costs can run the gambit from just under 10 euro up to 40 euro.

Electronics enthousiasts across the world have good reasons to be jealous of their American friends  ;)
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #35 on: October 25, 2014, 10:44:09 am »
If you ask nicely many (9 out of 10) German Ebay sellers will ship to the Netherlands even when the listing says they don't. Transferring money to Germany is a piece of cake with the IBAN/BIC account numbers if the seller doesn't have Paypal.
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Offline UberStrike88Topic starter

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #36 on: October 25, 2014, 01:30:39 pm »
If you ask nicely many (9 out of 10) German Ebay sellers will ship to the Netherlands even when the listing says they don't. Transferring money to Germany is a piece of cake with the IBAN/BIC account numbers if the seller doesn't have Paypal.
I know but then ebay won't invastigate it when it doesn't arrive  ;)
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #37 on: October 25, 2014, 02:49:04 pm »
On the face of it, that's a reasonable suggestion, and when I was looking for one I tracked it for a few weeks, however there are several hurdles.

There's virtually no Hakko on the used market anywhere in Europe (one FX-951 on ebay.de right now at EUR 215 "buy it now") as far as I can tell. It's 90% Weller and the rest is mostly Ersa.
Regarding the split, I'm not surprised as Hakko doesn't have much presence in the EU market (not sure they're even all that interested  :-//). 

FWIW, Ersa is almost unheard of here in the US (primary interest seems to be their production line equipment, not their hand work products). Procurement of spares would be limited to Ersa's corporate office here, as there are no distributors that carry their products in the US (nothing, not even tips).

The OP's budget of 20EUR made matters particularly difficult.
 

Offline Yago

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Re: Going to buy a soldering station
« Reply #38 on: October 25, 2014, 05:17:25 pm »
On the face of it, that's a reasonable suggestion, and when I was looking for one I tracked it for a few weeks, however there are several hurdles.

There's virtually no Hakko on the used market anywhere in Europe (one FX-951 on ebay.de right now at EUR 215 "buy it now") as far as I can tell. It's 90% Weller and the rest is mostly Ersa.
Regarding the split, I'm not surprised as Hakko doesn't have much presence in the EU market (not sure they're even all that interested  :-//). 

FWIW, Ersa is almost unheard of here in the US (primary interest seems to be their production line equipment, not their hand work products). Procurement of spares would be limited to Ersa's corporate office here, as there are no distributors that carry their products in the US (nothing, not even tips).

The OP's budget of 20EUR made matters particularly difficult.

Grass is always greener, and I thought Ersa too!( perhaps there are few examples.. :P )

$20 is asking too much, bite the bullet and save, be practical.

I had a look at the used market in Europe for a while, when I was looking for a station, and there seemed to be a lot of Weller Magnastat about.
Not the best, but is temp controlled of sorts, parts are available and they clearly last.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2014, 05:23:59 pm by Yago »
 


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