Which iron for low volume SMD assembly?

[bd139]

They’re the same sort of class of iron as the higher end weller and metcal items so that doesn’t surprise me.

I did look in that direction myself to start with but there’s no decent distributor here in the U.K other than Dancap and you have to email them and pay via bank transfer which takes lots of time and gives you no idea of stock levels etc. Whereas RS here stock the full range of metcal tips and spares in large quantities so you can just whack them in basket and get them next day FOC delivery without interacting with a human. Literally a few clicks and it turns up before 10am. This is a big barrier to adoption of Hakko here. If you run in such a miniscule scale as I do, you need to be supported by low overhead, reliable, just-in-time suppliers.

[Rolo]

I have the FX-888D and a selection of original hakko tips. Happy with it. Great iron stand as well. The controls are a bit different but in practice I rarely change the temperature. It's at 350 C  most of the time.

[nanofrog]

...[snip]...There’s no decent distributor here in the U.K other than Dancap and you have to email them and pay via bank transfer which takes lots of time and gives you no idea of stock levels etc.

Hakko's pricing outside of the NA seems borderline extortionate as well from my POV, so I doubt that's helping their adoption rate in the UK/EU market either.

There is Batterfly in Italy though. Their pricing seems more reasonable (i.e. 279 EUR for an FX-951), and they do have an e-store. Not sure about any additional customs duties and the like, but perhaps worth considering for those wanting a Hakko product or consumables.

But I certainly get the attraction of RS's speed and convenience given your location.  Same with DigiKey here in the US. Decent results from Mouser and Allied IME as well (may not be free, but it's rather reasonable, if not outright inexpensive).