Benchtop soldering station for hobbyist?

[Chris Wilson]

I feel the time has come for a hobbyist level soldering station for soldering and de soldering PCB board components and general light duty assembly work. Is there anything new on Ebay anyone can specifically recommend, and has anyone any links to good videos on how to remove PCB components, aprticualrlu from dual layer boards, without damage. I have fleetingly read of using hot air guns, i assume not ones like my big Bosch one that I use for heating castings up to drop frozen bearings into, or burning paint off the house windows? Is there a general purpose resin cored solder that covers most PCB type usages?  Thanks.

[PStevenson]

Dave has a whole video tutorial set on what to use for soldering, how to solder and so on here's the first one http://www.eevblog.com/2011/06/19/eevblog-180-soldering-tutorial-part-1-tools/

as for soldering stations I imagine people will recommend what they personally own and I will do the same which is the ATTEN 938D I've been through quite a few soldering stations in my time and this one has been the best I've owned yet for what my opinion is worth.

[Psi]

Anything from Hakko will be good,  eg FX-888


If you need something cheaper Atten or Aoyue are both good too and significantly cheaper than a Hakko.
I don't really recommend the Aoyue model which has a smoke extractor tube on the iron, IMHO it makes the iron an odd shape to hold.

[Chris Wilson]

I'll watch Dave's videos tomorrow, but does anyone know if the vacuum pump de soldering stations work by blowing compressed air over a venturi and creating a vacuum, or are they true high volume vac pumps? Thanks.

[FenderBender]

The FX-888 is very popular among hobbyists. It comes in at around $80-100 I believe. If this is too much, I recommend getting something like a Weller WLC-100, which is what I use. It's nothing fancy. Pretty much just a light dimmer with a soldering iron attached to it, but it's pretty cheap and you have plenty of readily available tip options, and the iron it comes with isn't half bad to start. It's like $35-40.

[markedagain]

i got a hakko 888 as my first station a few months ago, and i was speechless,  its fantastic for the price really. i thought before that i was not good at soldering, turns out it was the cheap 10 soldering tool from radio shack with a tip as large as my pinky was the problem hehe. you should also look into not buying the cheapest solder neither, helps so much

on a side note, i had a hard time figuring out online what i should put my temp to, so after trying a few diff settings, i settled on 370c for leaded soldering, if this is wrong i would love to hear about it.

[Psi]

on a side note, i had a hard time figuring out online what i should put my temp to, so after trying a few diff settings, i settled on 370c for leaded soldering, if this is wrong i would love to hear about it.

Anything from 330 to 390 is perfectly fine.

It really depend on the size of what you're soldering.
~330 will solder SMT resistors no problem.
~390 is sometimes good for larger components which have lots of surface area.

Occasionally, when trying to unsolder a large through-hole component from a multilayer pcb you might go to 450 for a minute or two.
But keep in mind that 400 and over will start to damage most tips.
So you don't want to run your iron at 400+ for any longer than needed.

I have my iron is set to 360 most of the time.

[vk6zgo]

If you want something which will do a large range of jobs,get a Weller WTCP.
They are way too expensive new,but if you can pick up a good used one,you will be agreeably surprised.
The main fault to look out for with these,is that the magnetic switch can stick on & the thing gets too hot!

Obviously it would be nice to have a really nice "Soldering Station",but it is not as essential as many "fanboys" on this forum assert.
Most people reccommend  the Hakko 888,which looks like a nice unit.
The only Hakko stuff I used ones were not too marvellous,but that was a few years back,& ,knowing the employer's ways were probably the cheapest & nastiest-----the ones that Hakko "are trying to forget"

With the vacuum desoldering setups,the only ones I've had much to do with are Pace & Royel,& they both use a vacuum pump.

VK6ZGO

[kaz911]

There are a few JBC stations on ebay - I just got the JBC CD2BB on ebay for about $100 more than a Hakko FX-888 costs where I am. I am very happy with it and it takes only a few seconds to change tips. And it seems very temperature stable.

The AD2700 ("old" version of JBC CD2BB) US version:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/JBC-Advanced-AD-2700-solder-station-used-FREE-SHIPPING-/330664435205?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cfd22de05#ht_500wt_976

CD2BB Ebay UK (new)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/soldering-station-jbc-digital-soldering-station-kit-/160721947778?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item256bc64c82#ht_500wt_1209

AD2700 Ebay UK (used)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JBC-ADVANCED-AD-2700-SOLDERING-STATION-JBC-2245-HANDPIECE-29-/280810983089?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item4161a38eb1#ht_1201wt_1193

I have not heard anyone on EEVblog talk badly about JBC - so far only positives.

[Teknotronix]

Another vote for the FX-888

[kaz911]

Another vote for the FX-888

If you are in a 110v country - Hakko FX-888 ($80-$100) - if you are in a 220-240 volt country .. Hakko FX-888 ($180-$250)

So yes - I would vote for the FX-888 if I was in the US.