Which soldering station should I buy?

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#21
almost forgot to mention....
For more money (a lot more), there are really good professional grade irons from Hakko, Metcal and my new favorite JBC.
MarcelvdG said:
I'm glad my soldering station doesn't have that feature. The ones at work auto shut-off, and I find it very annoying.

Mind you, they auto shut-off after a fixed period of time and you need to press a button to turn them on again. Do you also need to press a button or does your station go from standby to on automatically when you pick the iron out of the holder?
Click to expand...
The auto-off feature saves soldering tips. With the higher temperature solder, and the need for hotter tips, those tips oxidize very fast. Now tips last a very long time. When I say "auto-off", what's really going on is the iron cools down to some low temperature. When the iron is in its cradle, it cools off very quickly. As soon as the iron is out of the cradle, it heats up in about 2 seconds or so. Nice, right?

If the photo comes through - you can see my soldering station (JBC). I've got tip cleaner there, but I almost never use it. On the right is the cheapo, but actually pretty decent hot-air station.
 

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#24
nattawa said:
Get the Quecoo, not because I've used mine for two years, but because the Ksger has safety code violation in the PCB assembly, at least at the moment I was shopping a T12 station. I'm not aware of they having corrected that violation or not with the later shipment. The issue is that the heatsink for the MOSFET in the PSU straddles on a primary side trace on the PCB, negating the clearance/creepage the PCB layout intended and making it a potential safety hazard. It can be fixed though by removing the MOSFET/heatsink, cutting away the part of the heatsink to suffice the clearance/creepage required by safety code, putting tape over the trace if needed, then reinstalling the MOSFET/heatsink.

The unit I bought had the tip floating, un-grounded, despite the grounding was provided inside the unit as a seemingly "option". I personally don't like the tip hard-grounded as it's not a proper ESD protection measure. I grounded the tip with a 1M-ohm resistor in series.
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Well number 3 in my list has a proper ground connection. Please check the images.
Looking at the PCB the Queeco seems the way to go.
 
#30
pcardoso73 said:
Hi,
I really need to buy a station for my projects, which involve soldering on pcbs.
After looking at many, I've narrowed down the list to

1 - Queeco 956
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrNIF14

2 - KSGER T12 STM32 V2.1s
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPt5XPs

3 - KSGER T12 STC, grounded chassis and nice display
https://a.aliexpress.com/_msBQ5vM

Any thoughts on these? I really like the large numbers on the number3...

Thanks in advance.
Best regards
Pedro
Click to expand...
Hey,
I’ve used a Hakko 936 for years and it has preformed very well. I haven’t used it much for smd but will be doing that very soon. Only thing I would add would be a digital display. Beyond that make sure you get quality tips, an assortment with several of each.
Best to you in the new year
 
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