I'm looking for an iron that can take tips with a well and also preferably a wide variety of other tips.
I assumed that in Daves Soldering Tutorial 3 he used a Hakko FX-888 but now I'm not so sure as I can't find any tips with a well that go with the FX-888. Can anyone clue me in ?
Last time I looked into this it seemed that someone other than Hakko had obtained a legal monopoly on tips with a well in them. Therefore you can't easily buy such tips unless you go to the other competing manufacturer.
However, there is not much reason to worry about it. The tips with a well are more of a marketing gimmick than a practically useful device. If you have the appropriate technique you can do any given soldering job with a variety of tip shapes. You don't need that one particularly.
Oops.. I didn't catch the part about the well. Yeah, I couldn't find those either.
>> "The well" - is known as miniwave
I believe it is patented by PACE and licensed by Weller.
Hakko sells/has sold it in Asia but not in the US.
The tips with a well are more of a marketing gimmick than a practically useful device. If you have the appropriate technique you can do any given soldering job with a variety of tip shapes. You don't need that one particularly.
They seemed pretty useful to me in the soldering tutorial I mentioned for soldering multiple pins on an SMD chip. Dave calls it a wicking tip but they seem to be more commonly referred to as concave tips. Maybe you can check it out - (the 3 minutes from 16:30 to 19:30 are relevant) and share your technique with us for doing a similar job?
>> "The well" - is known as miniwave
I believe it is patented by PACE and licensed by Weller.
Hakko sells/has sold it in Asia but not in the US.
So far I have found that Metcal and Ersa also do concave tips or something similar anyway. The Ersa tips do not seem to have a straightforward concave shape but have a couple of planes embedded in the concavity - probably their way of getting round the patent. Absolutely bloody barmy when you can patent a manual soldering technique and a simple tip shape ! If the current patent system had been in operation when someone invented the wheel - or toilet paper....... ! It's jusy a way for greedy bastards to screw the rest of us.
They seemed pretty useful to me in the soldering tutorial I mentioned for soldering multiple pins on an SMD chip. Dave calls it a wicking tip but they seem to be more commonly referred to as concave tips. Maybe you can check it out - (the 3 minutes from 16:30 to 19:30 are relevant) and share your technique with us for doing a similar job?
Here are some Hakko videos showing use of the cup shaped tip and use of alternative tip shapes for similar soldering tasks:
http://www.hakko.com/english/tip_selection/work_drag.html
You can take a 2 mm drill bit and drill it within 10 seconds. Yes it will damage the tip (it's coated), but it took 1.5 years for my friend to actually burn the drilled tip. And he uses his soldering iron 7 hours for 5 days a week.
The trick here is to drill at the right angle, dead center and with a right size bit (make it 0.2 mm smaller than tip).
So much for patents...
Here are some Hakko videos showing use of the cup shaped tip and use of alternative tip shapes for similar soldering tasks:
http://www.hakko.com/english/tip_selection/work_drag.html
I saw the BCM/CM tip here before but its not clear whether it can be used with the FX-888 as it doesn't show it as a replacement tip in the manual - also can't find anywhere that sells them.
Having endured the necessity of struggling with whatever crappy tools were available in my former employment at sea, I now have the luxury of being able to choose my own tools and would prefer to use the best tool for the job so other methods suggested would not be my first choice.
I never thought it would be such a complicated process to get a flexible soldering station that won't empty the bank account down the line !
I saw the BCM/CM tip here before but its not clear whether it can be used with the FX-888 as it doesn't show it as a replacement tip in the manual - also can't find anywhere that sells them. Having endured the necessity of struggling with whatever crappy tools were available in my former employment at sea, I now have the luxury of being able to choose my own tools and would prefer to use the best tool for the job so other methods suggested would not be my first choice.
The FX-888 can take any T18 style tip and also the older 900M style tips. So when buying tips that's all you have to check.
As mentioned above the cup ended tips have legal blockages on them, so you would probably have to import them directly from Japan or something.
But honestly, if you have only ever used a crappy iron the FX-888 will be a revelation. It is a really good iron whatever tips you use with it. If you get one you will invent reasons to do soldering just so you can smile.
My favorite trick with the FX-888 is touching the tip to the outside of a big lump of metal like a banana plug and heating the whole thing up to soldering temperature. The iron just pours heat into it until the solder melts.
The cup shaped tips are probably nice, but it's no disaster if you can't get hold of them. With soldering as with anything, a job is made or broken by the skill of the practitioner. A good practitioner can succeed even with limited tools, but a poor practitioner will produce poor results with any tools good or bad.
FYI, I ordered a Hakko FX-888 from Fry's plus 4 different T18 tips from them. Only one of their T18 tips is identified on their website as being for the 888, but all of the tips I ordered fit.
JBC has the tips with the concave pocket also.
