Cheap T12 clone soldering stations

[zanga]

Was checking these two, but I guess you tried them already.

https://gearbest.app.link/aQAHKXYLjQ

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F302000735926

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[Specmaster]

Thank you for your answers !

Any recommendations for a stand that can hold the FX9501 handle ?

Yes, I tried this one and it works really well. You do have to squash down slightly the inner tube with a pair of long nose pliars to retain the iron and I have not had any problems in using it at all. Here is the link to the supplier https://cpc.farnell.com/maker-life/bsel0010/soldering-iron-stand/dp/SD02156?st=iron%20stands

[KL27x]

^

You do have to squash down slightly the inner tube with a pair of long nose pliars to retain the iron

What I noticed on the one I got with the Bakon, which looks the same as that but in black, the design is just slightly off. Maybe the blue one is different. I have heard they revised it, once, so YMMV.

There are two concentric ridges on the T12 tips, forward and back. Then there are many longitudinal ridges molded in the handpiece which are a press fit to the two ridges on the cartridge. The problem is the front of the longitudinal plastic ridges in the handpiece are beveled/rounded over too deep on the front end. So they hardly touch the front ridge on the cartridge. The cartridge bottoms out just a hair too early, leaving that front ridge resting in the over-sized beveled area.

So there is potentially a better fix than squishing the plastic down to egg the ID. If you unscrew the two halves of the handle about 1/16th of an inch, it makes the handpiece slightly longer. And the ridges have full contact. I milled a little plastic washer to take up that gap between the two halves. This improved the grip enough to remove the tendency of a non-symmetric tip to spin around when pressing it just so, and it removed a bit of the lateral wiggle when pressing. YMMV.

[Imgur](

)
Here's a pic. You can see the white washer/spacer between the two halves of the iron. I also shortened the back of the handpiece as much as humanly possible, and that was a much less elegant mod. There's a strip of coke bottle plastic over the butt, used as heatshrink for structural support.

[Specmaster]

^

You do have to squash down slightly the inner tube with a pair of long nose pliars to retain the iron

What I noticed on the one I got with the Bakon, which looks the same as that but in black, the design is just slightly off. Maybe the blue one is different. I have heard they revised it, once, so YMMV.

There are two concentric ridges on the T12 tips, forward and back. Then there are many longitudinal ridges molded in the handpiece which are a press fit to the two ridges on the cartridge. The problem is the front of the longitudinal plastic ridges in the handpiece are beveled/rounded over too deep on the front end. So they hardly touch the front ridge on the cartridge. The cartridge bottoms out just a hair too early, leaving that front ridge resting in the over-sized beveled area.

So there is potentially a better fix than squishing the plastic down to egg the ID. If you unscrew the two halves of the handle about 1/16th of an inch, it makes the handpiece slightly longer. And the ridges have full contact. I milled a little plastic washer to take up that gap between the two halves. This improved the grip enough to remove the tendency of a non-symmetric tip to spin around when pressing it just so, and it removed a bit of the lateral wiggle when pressing. YMMV.

[Imgur](

)
Here's a pic. You can see the white washer/spacer between the two halves of the iron. I also shortened the back of the handpiece as much as humanly possible, and that was a much less elegant mod. There's a strip of coke bottle plastic over the butt, used as heat shrink for structural support.

The inner tube of the stand is not plastic but metal and it is this you need to squash just enough that iron tip passes through easily and then the tip rests against the metal tube but the actual tip where the heater is pokes through the gap and the iron rests on the shaft of the tip about 40mm away from the actual tip, just behind the rubber handle.

[KL27x]

If these handpieces are grossly the same, that inner tube is really short and it is just a spacer. It isn't even supposed to contact the cartridge, at all. I gave this handpiece away, but I want to say it was just there to hold the electrical socket in place. it is made of plastic, in my version. And it would only touch somewhat towards the rear of the cartridge if you egged it. The front most contact point btn the handpiece and the cartridge is at that forward concentric protruding ridge on the cartridge. The contact area is molded into the front half of the handpiece, directly. That's where most of the play and looseness is in my version. But maybe these handpieces are only similar, externally. 

Anyhow, maybe take a look in the front, business end of your handpiece to see what I'm talking about. If yours is similar, you can see the internal plastic ribs only hold the cartridge loosely, in the rounded beveled area. And if the cartridge could go in a smidge deeper it would hold much better. Or maybe you could feel it, anyhow, when inserting the cartridge. And you might feel a difference if you unscrew the handpiece, partly, to where it engages fully.

[Specmaster]

No, I don't think you understand what I'm talking so heres some photos. Looking at your photo you are using those plastic interchangeable things and I'm using the bog standard 9501 handle and the ridges that you are talking are well down inside my handle so my tips are held nice and secure so there is no problem using the metal inside tube to hold the weight of the iron because the tip is further down inside the handle.

[KL27x]

Thanks for the pics. Yeah, that is totally different.

[stj]

 

[bd139]

That does the job 

Revisited my T12 this morning. Unfortunately we got hammered by a storm over the last couple of days and it ate my HF antenna. Due to the location of it, I have to do in situ repairs with a soldering iron. This is well away from any sockets. In fact the feed to the antenna is 15m long. Thus a solution was required. I figured because I'd stuffed anderson powerpoles on everything, I might as well do the T12 as well because I can then whack it into a comms battery I have or my power supply. Then I can take it outside and fix antenna.

It worked.

This is the unit I added a boost converter to so that it heats up quicker and delivers 24V to the control board.





Note that the battery has an inline fuse wired into the powerpole harness:



Much better than a butane iron (I had one blow up on me once)

[stj]

you rebel, use a cord grip instead of a knot! 

[bd139]

I didn’t have any cord grips left. I did however have plenty of knots

It’ll do. If it eats the cable the fuse will go 

[ciccio]

I'v found a suitable iron stand sold by Welleman : https://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?id=417238, paid about 9 Euros.
It has a slight loose fit (it fits perfectly with other Chinese irons) but is very usable.
Banggood and Aliexpress have a similar one: https://www.banggood.com/Metal-Material-Soldering-Iron-Stand-with-Sponge-For-HAKKO936-Soldering-Station-p-1084119.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN, but i've never tested it.
I've assembled many T12 kits, and discovered that quality varies a lot.
Looking at the new versions on sale I understand that they are improving a lot.
I prefer the LED versions: the OLED version have a display that is too small for my eyes.
The standard ones may be improved a lot, simply by using bigger wires from power supply to the controller board.
There are may forum's threads about it.
Best regards

[Haggis McHaggis]

The tip was floating on mine. I connected it to the negative lead on the DC in which is connected to earth on my power supply. You could do that or stick a 4mm binding post on the back and bring it out to that. Then you can use it for both ESD safe and floating work.

Hi bd139,

i bought a similar T12 Mini station (Quicko 943, DC 24V) and have a floating tip too. I opened a new thread https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/how-to-get-rid-of-fluctuating-voltage-on-soldering-tip-(t12-clone-station)/

I'd be glad if you could take a look at it.

Thanks

[bd139]

On it

[union7]

Your T12-942  has a much deeper box than the one I currently see on Amazon... any idea why?

(Maybe at the time they were just using the boxes for other models that needed room for a power supply?)

TIA

[Specmaster]

Your T12-942  has a much deeper box than the one I currently see on Amazon... any idea why?

(Maybe at the time they were just using the boxes for other models that needed room for a power supply?)

TIA

Wow, those are Amazon T12 soldering stations are very expensive, do yourself a favour and take on Aliexpress, there that we typically less than half the Amazon prices, ok you will have to wait a week or two before you get it, but well worth the wait, I have 2 of the T12-952 versions, nice bit of kit.