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Best Budget Soldering Iron?

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ebclr:
You can't change a hot probe without burning yourself, I would opt with the long ones instead of this short one

Shock:

--- Quote from: ebclr on April 11, 2019, 11:24:47 am ---You can't change a hot probe without burning yourself, I would opt with the long ones instead of this short one

--- End quote ---

Most modern cartridge soldering stations are designed to have short tip working distances and can be swapped easily while 400C/752F. You use the provided heat resistant silicon pad or specific brands have an additional way of doing it. For instance Pace uses a tip tool, JBC uses their iron stand, Hakko uses the plastic tip sleeve.

You can buy Chinese silicon tongs on Ebay for $1, no burns.

GreyWoolfe:
MP3, here is a question for you.  Do you plan to do a lot of soldering or occasional soldering?  If you plan to do a lot, it behooves you to save your pennies and buy a real and proper name brand unit with OEM tips.  There will be no disappointment there.  Don't be afraid to look at the used market, that is how I have my Metcal MX-500.  If your use is occasional, the Bakon that Shock linked might be a good choice if you have a power supply on hand but I will still recommend OEM tips.  They will simply outlast and out perform the $2 Chinese specials.  My dearly departed father always said that you buy your tool right and only buy it once.

Psi, I think you are being a bit hard on the 936/900m style.  I had a real Hakko 936 for about 7 years before upgrading.  It spent 2 years of its life replacing capacitors on Dell and ELO touch screen monitors for the company.  Granted, you can't solder 2 4" pieces of copper PCB together but for basic soldering it was awesome.  I had chisel tips from 3.2 mm down to .8 mm that let me solder 0603 passives and SOT23 components on SMD practice boards.  The limiting factor is finding OEM in a configuration you want.  There is a greater selection of T12 in OEM and clone.  By the way, I sold it to a ham club member and she is quite happy with it

Psi:

--- Quote from: GreyWoolfe on April 11, 2019, 11:39:15 am ---Psi, I think you are being a bit hard on the 936/900m style.  I had a real Hakko 936 for about 7 years before upgrading.  It spent 2 years of its life replacing capacitors on Dell and ELO touch screen monitors for the company.  Granted, you can't solder 2 4" pieces of copper PCB together but for basic soldering it was awesome.  I had chisel tips from 3.2 mm down to .8 mm that let me solder 0603 passives and SOT23 components on SMD practice boards.  The limiting factor is finding OEM in a configuration you want.  There is a greater selection of T12 in OEM and clone.  By the way, I sold it to a ham club member and she is quite happy with it

--- End quote ---

I spend 10+ years of my life using irons that run 900M tips and i did lots successful soldering with them too.
It's not so much that 900m itself is shit, you can get the job done with it.
So maybe i should rephrase.
It's that 900M is shit once you have used a really good iron and then go back to it :)

My thermaltronics TMT-9000 totally ruined me, i just can't use a 900M without going "hm.. why is this iron taking so long to solder this part? oh thats right, 900m tip"

GreyWoolfe:

--- Quote from: Psi on April 11, 2019, 11:47:13 am ---So maybe i should rephrase.
It's that 900M is shit once you have used a really good iron and then go back to it :)

My thermaltronics TMT-9000 totally ruined me, i just can't use a 900M without going "hm.. why is this iron taking so long to solder this part? oh thats right, 900m tip"

--- End quote ---

We can agree on that.  There was a huge difference between the 936 and the FX-951 that I upgraded to.  When I added the Metcal MX-500 for a ridiculous price, that just gilded the lily. ;D  I couldn't go back either.

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