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Desoldering station suggestion
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Shock:
I've had a Pace SX 100 handpiece for almost 4 years now and it's been great.

Compared to the Hakko it's smaller, pencil style (which many prefer) and the body just houses the solder trap, so quite lightweight. It costs about $20 to service a worn handpiece which is considerably cheaper than other brands.

The Pace uses a station with built in vacuum pump, certain models can be both foot or handpiece actuated /controlled.



all_repair:

--- Quote from: caprider on January 15, 2022, 04:00:10 pm ---From what I’ve read Aoyue 474A++ is a fair option for about 135€.
I’m curious to know if this a good station and if there are better alternatives in about the same budget.

--- End quote ---
I have one.  Is a white dead elephant now, suction power is not there.  I don't know where the design goes wrong, I have tried changing to a stronger pump, still giving me weak suction.  Go for Hakko, I have 4 hakko desoldering stations, but their main unit and accessories are getting more expensive.

Anyone knows how to "solder" back the wire to the heating element of Hakko head?  The joint break off after a while (predetermined cycles== planned failure), I have quite a few faulty heads lying around with this simple fault.
tooki:

--- Quote from: Shock on February 09, 2022, 01:25:02 am ---I've had a Pace SX 100 handpiece for almost 4 years now and it's been great.

--- End quote ---
FYI to anyone buying used: the SX-90 and SX-100 are identical, they’re just minor revisions, so minor that all parts are interchangeable. The SX-80 is identical to those except for the heater, so an SX-80 can easily (and officially) be upgraded to an SX-90 in order to use the improved SX-90 style tips. If you’re buying used, any of these is a fine choice.


--- Quote from: Shock on February 09, 2022, 01:25:02 am ---The Pace uses a station with built in vacuum pump, certain models can be both foot or handpiece actuated /controlled.

--- End quote ---
Don't all of them have the pedal connection? (Incidentally, the pedal is a simple switch, so you can do like I did and buy a $10 guitar pedal and change the connector to the 3-pin mini-DIN instead of spending $100 on the official Pace pedal.)
Shock:
I recall not all of them having foot control (such as the Pace ST-75) but yeah the din socket on the rear is a giveaway. The desoldering handpieces are much the same, it's more a case of figuring out if buying Sensatemp or Intelliheat wired versions.

Hydron:
Just don't go Weller - I got a _new_ DSX80 handpiece from ebay for a sharp price and built a station using a pump, transformer and weller control PCB that I already had (just had to whip up a DC supply for the pump), but after a few years of hobbyist only (i.e. very low duty cycle) use the sensor inside the iron failed.

I thought I'd just be able to buy a heater/sensor assembly, but it turns out that it's almost the whole damn iron! The only thing you don't buy is the plastic handle and cord basically, and the replacement part is nearly the price of a whole new iron (and about 3x what I paid in the first place). It also seems that these I'm not the first with issues (reports on here about welds breaking etc).

I thankfully managed to fix mine with a sensor I salvaged out of a scrap 50W weller iron (a PT20 RTD, so good luck getting one another way) but it was a massive PITA and I'm not sure how long the fix will last. Had to pick out the ceramic potting, remove the dead sensor. spot weld a wire to the new sensor (one broke off when I salvaged it) and pot it back into the iron. No idea how well my DIY weld will hold up (weld failure is likely what killed the original), so fingers crossed it doesn't just die again soon.

Would go with almost any other brand in the future, the only reason I didn't give up on the weller when it died is due to having some pricey tips, consumables etc already.
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