Soldering iron reccomendations

[PA4TIM]

After several B-brand stations and irons I took a deep bread and bought a Weller WS81 ( 3 years ago) and I should have done it the first time ( could have bought two wellers and still saved money in the long run) last year I bought a used Pace solder/desolder station and next month a second pace one wil join the rest.

I hate to change tips so I allways have several irons standby. The weller with a small tip for smd or narrow spots ( the pace is rather big)
For both stations I have a whole assortment of tips. I bought the weller with 4 different tips, and for every tip  a spare one ( because I use it everyday the tips from the other stations /irons lasted 1 to 3 months) but the spare weller tips are still in their bags, even the tip I use most is still as new. And I am very sloppy on tips. My weller is always at max temp but shuts down when i put it in the holder. I poke holes in plastic with them, alleays forget to clean them ect. But it heats up quick enough. The pace is on several hours a day and also still the  original first tips and still as new

In the long run a quality station is the most economical.

But i'm new here on the forum, i like it allthough it looks a bit like its sort of not done here, to promote quality stuff. I thought we Dutch have the reputation of being cheap but after reading here I think that opinion needs some adjustment. It is Rigol, Owon, Atten ect for and after.

In that case, i will probbly make no friends here but I always tell what i thin, so sorry but no China junk for me anymore, i started with voltcrap, Rigol, cheap solderstation ect, they all died or I got sick of them misbehaving or just lying to me and tossed them out. Now I save a bit longer and buy quality ( real quality, not paper quality, or good looks quality, ect. ) or a used A brand.

An instrument must be save and well build and all the things Dave shows in the teardowns but for me most of all it must be last long and do what it is made for, good accurate measuring, and absolute accuracy, not nice commercial incomplete paperspecs based on nothing. But I feel I am a minority in that opinion. Don't shoot me, just my opinion and eveybody must buy what he wants.

Fred

[kaptain_zero]

The cheapest "insert name of tool here" turns out to be the same as buying your last tool first.  Buy cheap and sooner or later you regret it, or it does not work as well as you hoped, or it fails and needs to be replaced too soon, or you loose interest in the particular hobby and now you want to sell it. In all these cases, a quality device will last you your lifetime, have lower maintenance costs, and have a significantly higher % resale value. The cheap stuff..... sorry. 

Sometimes it's seems wasteful to pony up the full cost of good gear, but in the end.... it almost always pays off. Notably in long/delightful service or resale value.  There is nothing quite like using quality tools. It makes the job/hobby so much more effortless/enjoyable.

Regards

Kaptain "Why is it I seemingly almost never take my own advice, even when I know it's right?!?!?" Zero

[Fluxed Matter]

The cheapest "insert name of tool here" turns out to be the same as buying your last tool first.  Buy cheap and sooner or later you regret it, or it does not work as well as you hoped, or it fails and needs to be replaced too soon, or you loose interest in the particular hobby and now you want to sell it. In all these cases, a quality device will last you your lifetime, have lower maintenance costs, and have a significantly higher % resale value. The cheap stuff..... sorry. 

Sometimes it's seems wasteful to pony up the full cost of good gear, but in the end.... it almost always pays off. Notably in long/delightful service or resale value.  There is nothing quite like using quality tools. It makes the job/hobby so much more effortless/enjoyable.

Regards

Kaptain "Why is it I seemingly almost never take my own advice, even when I know it's right?!?!?" Zero

Amen to that...

[IanB]

But i'm new here on the forum, i like it allthough it looks a bit like its sort of not done here, to promote quality stuff. I thought we Dutch have the reputation of being cheap but after reading here I think that opinion needs some adjustment. It is Rigol, Owon, Atten ect for and after.

Not at all, promote away. It's just that some posters are students, or on a low budget, or maybe only have an occasional use for a tool and can't justify spending lots of money. But there is plenty of high quality gear seen as well.

[T4P]

I support Agilent very animously, but Rigol is just great.
If not the low-end series, because you better know what you are buying since you don't expect to get ferrari when you pay for a toyota
you pay peanuts for a rigol (comparably) and you get a watermelon because like dave said, it's the best budget scope! Remember, a scope is always lying

> SO i don't know what's wrong with Rigol.

[AndyC_772]

How come Metcals don't come up more often when you guys are talking about soldering irons?  I love those things and you can find used ones on ebay for about 100bucks pretty often.  That's for a base station and a hand piece and usually comes with a bunch of used tips.

They heat up in about 5 seconds.  Love it!

+1 for Metcal (OK Industries). They use a completely different technology from most irons - there's no conventional heating element, no temperature sensor and no feedback control system. The base station supplies power as rf, and the tips absorb this energy and convert it to heat - until they reach their design temperature, at which point they abruptly lose this 'lossy' property and stop getting any hotter.

The technology guarantees fast warm-up, no temperature overshoot, and the ability to maintain a constant temperature even when heating large joints or soldering quickly. Having used one I hate using anything else - and no, I don't have any commercial link with the manufacturer.

The MX-500 type with the tips that have a circular concentric plug are the best IMHO, followed by the SP200 which has a 2-pin D shaped tip connector. Personally I'd avoid the cheaper PS-900, it has a separate heater which is built into the iron rather than the tip, and it doesn't work nearly as well as the ones which have the heater within the tip.

I own a Metcal STSS system, which is the earlier version of the MX-500, and uses the same tips and accessories. Highly recommended if you can find one, they do come up on Ebay from time to time.

[madires]

+1 for Metcal (OK Industries). They use a completely different technology from most irons - there's no conventional heating element, no temperature sensor and no feedback control system. The base station supplies power as rf, and the tips absorb this energy and convert it to heat - until they reach their design temperature, at which point they abruptly lose this 'lossy' property and stop getting any hotter.

The technology guarantees fast warm-up, no temperature overshoot, and the ability to maintain a constant temperature even when heating large joints or soldering quickly. Having used one I hate using anything else - and no, I don't have any commercial link with the manufacturer.

Sorry, but there are alternative products with similar features. For example, take the ERSA i-Con. Starting at room temperature it heats up in 9s, starting at stand-by temperature it's just 3s. You can choose from three temperature control loops, one without temperature overshoot. For some situations it's nice to have overshooting, especially when heating up large masses. And if you worry about the temperature differences of different tips you can select the tip in a menu or enter the specific offset temperature manually. I'm using an i-Con2 for about a year now, soldering nearly anything from SMDs up to large connectors and I'm very happy too :-)

[T4P]

QUICK 201.
A quick getaway from those brands.

[PChi]

I think that soldering iron choice is partly driven by emotion and what you are used to. It's a bit like religion.
I have used some old Hakko irons and a previous place but I preferred the Metcals.
Currently I have access to a JBC at work but again I prefer a Metcal.
The last place I worked had a lot of Metcals of various ages and they seemed to keep on going so I blew some cash on a Metcal MX-5000. So I am a Metcal believer.

[8086]

To be honest, all I have ever needed is an Antex CS18 (with silicone cable). None of the fancy stations. But then I don't do large multi layer boards with large ground planes etc. It's a nice iron and the 0.5mm tip is great for SMT.

[nanofrog]

I've always thought of Metcal and other RF based stations as suited for production as to keep techs from adjusting the settings more so than lab use (no lockout keys or codes to lose/forget as there are with temp controlled stations for production).

Personally, I've found the ability to adjust temperature to be useful (no need to change tips when the size is correct for the joint, as can be the case with a Metcal (recollection of different temp value <500, 600, 700F series IIRC> for some tips, that have the same geometry).

Not that big a deal to turn it up when needed IMHO, then drop it back down to conserve tips, but I can see where not having to do so, or even think about it, would be convenient.

But I suspect that PCHi's right, that it's personal preference bordering religion. 

[Smokey]

FSM...... Flying-Soldering-Monster?

[T4P]

FSM...... Flying-Soldering-Monster?

I never knew what it meant
1) Flying Spaghetti Monster
2) Finite State Machines

[steve30]

To be honest, all I have ever needed is an Antex CS18 (with silicone cable). None of the fancy stations. But then I don't do large multi layer boards with large ground planes etc. It's a nice iron and the 0.5mm tip is great for SMT.

Cool. I have used a CS18 for a good few years as well, and have used other Antex irons for years before that.

But I decided I wanted something better so I ordered a Hakko FX-888 yesterday.

[tom66]

I like my free Antex digital soldering station I got from work (they were about to throw it out!), awesome bit of kit. Little to no overshoot, and warms up quickly. 65W good for high power stuff.

However I also love the OKi Metcal soldering stations we use at work - they work so well, heat up in a couple of seconds and solder beautifully.

[ot1]

Get a Weller with a temperature readout, mine heats up in 3-4 seconds from cold, and shuts off when in the holder, or can go on a standby temp.  lots of tips available for SMD as well as large components.

Removal of SMD can be done with an iron and solder braid, but its a challange and much slower than hot tweezers or a hot air pencil or hot sucker.