Weller WHS40 tips and question about other cheap soldering stations

[jay]

I'm not happy with the S31, S32 and S32 tips that they sell for the WHS40(D). Really, the selection of 3 tips isn't much especially when one of them is quite useless. After some googling I found shops selling S5 tip (and some others) for it but other sources suggest it's not for the WHS40. Do they fit? Are there non-original tips for it? Any tips where to look for tips?

Having just one soldering station is sometimes a problem so I would appreciate hearing experiences about low cost soldering stations. I cannot spend much money for the hobby equipment so I'm looking for a new soldering station for 100-150 euros. I'm used to using JBCs with a large selection of different tips at work so an important criterion is that there's a nice selection of tips for it. Hakko FX really isn't an option because the 220V version sold here is 200+ euros.. It can't be worth that much. Based on the discussions here actually getting a fake Hakko from China might be a reasonably good idea. Any good experiences of other Chinese soldering stations? Is the $100 Pro'sKit soldering station any good? The chisel tips for it don't look too good in pictures.

Thanks in advance.

[amyk]

Rather detailed thread on 936 clones: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/huakko-936c-soldering-station-(hakko-936-clone)/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/yihua-936-soldering-station-costs-$15-74-!!!/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/aoyue-937-soldering-station-(hakko-936-937-clone)/

But if your budge is $100, a real Hakko would be a good buy.

[nanofrog]

Perhaps look for a good quality, used station from Ersa, JBC, Weller or similar manufacturers (functions & has all the parts needed to solder <i.e base + iron>)?

[jay]

I think it might be helpful for others in the same situation if I reply to my own message from last year. I purchased few months ago a Ersa I-Con Pico soldering station that was on the  limit of my budget (150 euros or about 200USD). It's a low(est) cost model (made in China) from a manufacturer that should know how to design a soldering station. It's very easily available in Europe. The quality was a bit of a disappointment because the unit that I received worked only few minutes. The faulty unit was replaced and the second one has worked perfectly for the 3 months that I've had it.

Good things about it:
- Reasonable price.
- Large selection tips: see http://i-tool.de/mediothek/pdf/3ba00172_std_itips.pdf and http://i-tool.de/mediothek/pdf/3ba00176_spc_itips.pdf
- Good availability of the station and accessories (in Europe, at least).
- Warms up surprisingly quickly.
- Pleasant to use. I have big hands so I was worried about the small size ("pico").
- It really can transfer decent amount of thermal energy to the tip. I was positively surprised.

Cons:
- The biggest problem is that changing the tip requires waiting for it to cool down, unscrewing the tip part, pushing the tip from the holder and then the same in reverse. Really idiotic design. It would be easy if you could purchase more of those tip holders so that you would only unscrew it from the handle and then attach an other one but looks like they don't sell that separately as a spare part.
- Tips could be cheaper.. Chisel and point shaped 12 euros and special tips a lot more than that.
- The station has cheap plastic feel to it.
- The UI could be better. You can program temperature settings (with a memory card, weird decision from them).
- The stand could be better but it's usable.

So far I've been happy with it. If compared to the cheapest Weller WHS40 this soldering station is on a totally different level: much closer to the JBCs or high end Wellers rather than the WHS40. In actual use the only serious issue is the difficulty of changing tips.

[DL8RI]

Hi,

but looks like they don't sell that separately as a spare part.

they do.

http://www.ersa-shop.com/l%C3%B6tspitzenbefestigung-komplett-f%C3%BCr-itool-p-620.html
And for 6€ you can buy a special tweezer to grab the tips without damaging them.

BTW,

- Tips could be cheaper.. Chisel and point shaped 12 euros and special tips a lot more than that.

you bought quite expensive. You can get the "standard"-Tips for about ~8€. At the linked-above Ersa-shop for example they cost 7,80€.

[Felicitus]

Cons:
- The biggest problem is that changing the tip requires waiting for it to cool down, unscrewing the tip part, pushing the tip from the holder and then the same in reverse. Really idiotic design. It would be easy if you could purchase more of those tip holders so that you would only unscrew it from the handle and then attach an other one but looks like they don't sell that separately as a spare part.

You're right, changing tips is a bit odd. They even offer a tip changing tool (3ZT00164) which is about 20€. Not sure about this design decision…

The iCon Nano has a much better stand, which also includes 4 tip holders or so. The Nano can be purchased for about 170€ at some vendors, so if I had to buy another soldering station (I own the iCon 1 and used to own the nano), that would be my choice. The stand from the Nano is really horrible. The stand (ERSA A 50 or the successor A52) costs about 25€.

[jay]

Hi,

but looks like they don't sell that separately as a spare part.

they do.

http://www.ersa-shop.com/l%C3%B6tspitzenbefestigung-komplett-f%C3%BCr-itool-p-620.html
And for 6€ you can buy a special tweezer to grab the tips without damaging them.

Thanks!  If Google translatation can be trusted then they actually ship to outside Germany. With the part number it became easy to find other companies (with English service) that sell the same part. It was unexpectedly useful for me to post about my experiences

Edit: Ersa Shop shipping cost to EU (outside Germany) for few tips: 28.6 euros!

[DL8RI]

Wow, that's quite "impressive"
Especially for 40g of goods.

Don't forget the tweezers. I got mine today and they are quite handy for changing hot tips. With the round form-factor you don't have to worry about to deform/scratch the hollow tips.