Preferred Brands for Precision Soldering Tools & Consumables?

[Peterone]

I'm looking to get some soldering tools & consumables, like hot air gun, some flux, and a solder wire. The guide in this sub says I should look for name brand stuff like JBC、Weller & Hakko. I want the economic but functional one. The reputable brand I can think of is [removed spam reference].
jbc: jbctools.com
weller: wellertools.com
[Removed link to cheap Chinese garbage]
Does anyone have recommendations for ?

[u666sa]

Back around circa 2014 I got me Aoyue int2703A+, all this time has passed and I'm still using it. It's great. Now it is a hakko clone, somewhat. T2 equivalent tips, you can even modify the iron to make it run actual T2 tips. Excellent station. So a clone is great, plus economical.

Recently I watched video on AiXun T420D station. This is perhaps the one I will be getting next, to run along side my Aoyue, for access to smaller tips. The smallest T2 tip is not actually small enough. Check the video out --
It is the updated version.

From actual repair shops, what they using, they using a wireless battery operated mini solder iron -- https://northridgefix.com/product/portable-nf-mini-soldering-pen/
You can find the actual thing for cheap on ali if you do image search. Don't buy that one in the link.
Running a wireless battery operated solder iron with mini tips is also an option, and it's a working one.

As a matter of fact, just now I had to move big screen closer to my station in order to desolder two bad caps. So having some sort of wireless iron is definitely useful.


As far as JBC. Say no. It's waay out of sane level of money Vs. what you get. Waaay overpriced for what it is. I'm sure it's great, don't get me wrong. It is just way too expensive.

There was also either weller or some other brand name that had small tips, for for their clones as well.


The most important thing is that tips should be readily available and be cheap enough. You want to run around 4 to 6 tips, and have back up for each one of them. So it's 8 to 12 tips. With $40 a tip, you looking at $400 bill just for tips if you go with JBC. So don't!

[Solder_Junkie]

eBay have several vendors selling the generic “858D” hot air soldering station. Cost varies a little but opt for one with several nozzles. Typical prices around 30 GBP. They are not high tech, but more than adequate for most SMD rework. They are good for heat shrink tubing too. Check the earthing as some were reported to not be correctly wired.

Variable temperature soldering stations fall into two camps, those with the element in the bit and those with the element in the shaft. The theory is the type with the element in the bit have better temperature control… that is an expensive route to go down for most home or small workshops.

Then the choice is mainly between Weller/Hakko and obscure Chinese versions. As a former industrial user of Weller soldering stations, I opted for a Weller WE1010 for home use. I have a selection of bits and use it extensively for SMD work without any issues at all.

I prefer traditional tin/lead (60/40) solder, with rosin flux, which is less available in many places than lead free. It is often sold as “for professional use only”.

SJ

[alligatorblues]

The things I need most in a soldering station are short warm up time, power drop when in the holder, capable of very high temps without affecting the tip, repeatable temp settings, long cord from iron to base, and fairly maintenance-free tips.

I have 2 weller stations that are about 10 years old, something like the WS 81, but I think mine are 100W. I periodically jab the tip a coarse brass wool tip cleaner, once a day or so. I've never replaced a tip, although I do switch tips. I never have to tin the tips after I start using them.

I use MG Chemicals tip cleaner about once per year.  I use Kester 60/40 solder wire in three sizes, 0.3mm, 0.6mm and 1.1mm. The 1.1mm is for soldering big stuff, like rebuilding a Variac, repairing a cut extension cord, or any job with 18awg on down. I use to keep 0.125" Oatey flux core in the shop, but that's more for copper plumbing.

I also have a tub of  instant solder, which is flux with solder flakes in it. It's useful for smds, because you can tack the component to the board before you have to use 2 hands to final solder it.

I use a general purpose heat gun and, thermocouple thermometer and metal shielding around the part I'm working on. It's much faster, because the gun produces more and hotter air.

There's a crowdfunding digital control for small AC kitchen ovens, or toaster ovens, that can be programmed in time and temperature steps to safely reflow PCBs. I don't have one yet. But it won't be long.

I use a solder pot for a number of jobs. Stripping through-hole components off salvage PCBs, tinning lots of wire ends quickly,  and soldering parts with many connections to the PCB, or very large connections, like a large PCB mounted transformer. There are lots of videos about solder pots. I don't use a heated vacuum desolder tool, because I'm good enough with with a handheld solder sucker to desolder most things.

And, desoldering braid, and plunger type solder suckers. Sometimes it's helpful to have a dedicated iron with a large, hot tip, to apply a lot of heat very quickly, to avoid burning up parts. Since I was a kid, I just got along with what I had. I used the same 3.5 digit DMM as my only DMM, for 15 years or so.

If that's all you have, you learn to do a lot with it. I can test caps, LEDs, MOSFets and diodes with the resistance function. There's a lot of tricks to get by. Now I can have any instrument I want. I bought a Fluke 87-V Max, to correctly measure current consumption of DC motors with built-in inverters, so the motors actually use AC.

But I still reach for my old 3000 count DMM for simple measurements.