Soldering Station Advice

[NanoFrog]

Weller WD1001 (includes the WMP iron) & bought the WP80 iron for it as well.

LT1 tips are usually under $5 per (fit the WP80), while the NT series are ~$11 to $20 per (fit the WMP).

[Itsmee]

The Antex TCS is a temperature controlled 50 watt iron for reasonable money, I used one before stepping up to a proper base station.

[Rullknufs]

Is it OK to borrow this thread a little?

I'm also looking for a soldering station (preferrably available in Sweden or the surrounding area). I'm a total beginner (never soldered anything before) so I need something that's easy to use but something that I can keep with me for maybe 10-15 years. I was thinking of using to to make crossovers, amplifiers and such.

What do you recommend? I'd prefer to keep it below 1000SEK / €110 / $145 / £93

[Graemedench]

I'm pretty happy with this one. good solid. I imagine you'll have an RS there.
Buy Soldering Stations RS DS50 Digital Soldering Station eu/uk RS DS50 online from RS for next day delivery.

[AdamThorne]

Man! Maybe I'm just a noob. My dad taught me to solder on heathkits in the '80s. It was always simple pencil soldering irons. I solder a few times a month. I saw lots of people talk about their soldering technique and expensive soldering equipment. I thought maybe there was something I didn't know.

I bought a cheapish MCM solder station. It has since acquired some negative reviews, so maybe not a fair unit to judge by. But it wasn't really a different experience from a pencil iron. It broke, and I got a radio shack 15 / 30 watt switchable iron. It cost half as much. My soldering experience has been the same, from previous pencil irons, to the solder station, back to my current iron. I've gone as far now as having 2 cheap irons, one with a big fattie tip and one with a smaller one.

Maybe the stuff I do just isn't demanding enough to justify the fancy kit. I still wonder if a nice station wouldn't be a revelation to me. Probably those guys who solder all day every day wouldn't want to live without one.

I've ordered stuff from MPJA before and been happy with them, so maybe I'd go with their unit.

[NanoFrog]

You might want to take a look at the Hakko FX-888 (FX888-15BY = 230V version).

Not sure about pricing, but they're within your budget here in the US (run ~$90USD). RS has a listing, but are out of stock (listed for 135GBP).

It's possible to use a US version + 100W stepdown transformer, but that would tack on another ~ 30GBP or so, which would be around the same cost as getting the EU version from RS.

[ByronInLawrence]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the Stahl from Parts Express. I'm very happy with mine.
Stahl Tools TCSS Temp Controlled Soldering Station ESD Safe 374-200

[nezbleu]

That Stahl unit looks pretty much the same as the Circuit Specialists unit, or several others in the price range. Temperature control, decent pencil, good looking tips. Probably a good choice for $40.

[Drew Eckhardt]

Originally Posted by AdamThorne

Man! Maybe I'm just a noob. My dad taught me to solder on heathkits in the '80s. It was always simple pencil soldering irons. I solder a few times a month. I saw lots of people talk about their soldering technique and expensive soldering equipment. I thought maybe there was something I didn't know.

I bought a cheapish MCM solder station. It has since acquired some negative reviews, so maybe not a fair unit to judge by. But it wasn't really a different experience from a pencil iron. It broke, and I got a radio shack 15 / 30 watt switchable iron. It cost half as much. My soldering experience has been the same, from previous pencil irons, to the solder station, back to my current iron. I've gone as far now as having 2 cheap irons, one with a big fattie tip and one with a smaller one.

Ergonomics on a Metcal closely approximate a pencil in terms of precision and handle temperature, you can use the same soldering iron starting at surface mount and running through big power and ground planes (laptop power jack replacement) and structural (RCA jacks, terminal strips stuck to unetched FR-4 circuit boards) connections, they come up to temperature in ten seconds, and you can have a different tip on there in less than twice that time (with little thermal mass the tips cool off immediately without power wrapped in a wet soldering sponge. Metcal provides a silicon pad so you can ignore that, but at 20 seconds for a change without it do you really need it?).

$200 on a used MX500 and some tips divided by over a decade is a monthly cost that's a rounding error above zero. It's totally worthwhile averaging one full board and a little rework per year.

[7kentn]

I just bought one from my local hardware store and it works fine. You can change the nib on it as well.