Looking to purchase a Soldering Station

[zorgan]

Hi,

I`m looking to purchase a soldering station maybe from flee-bay, noticed there are some ranged around my budget of £70-£100 can anyone experienced here recommend any particular station, I`m just scared I get some cheap Chinese rip off model because i`m not familiar with the specs etc

I require one hot air gun with nozzles and a soldering iron.

it`s for repairing DC jacks on laptops & SMD (mainly chips and eeproms)

hope somebody can help! even if they can point a link to one with a good spec etc as i`ll have to do my homework on temperatures etc

 

[bernardgreen]

For almost all my work I use Weller irons.

http://www.wellersolderingiron.co.uk/

That said when I needed one at a client's site I bought a Maplin's N78AR as a low cost use once and dispose purchase but it is good enough to use in the workshop.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/50w-solder-station-35016

The important thing is to choose one that has a good range of bit sizes and shapes and one that allows easy change of bits. In some irons the bits corrode into the bit holder and cannot be removed when are worn out.

 

[zorgan]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aoyue-852...erTools_SM&hash=item4cfcb89c7e#ht_6275wt_1163

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-AUTO-...erTools_SM&hash=item231288ffd5#ht_4071wt_1163

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YH-898D-2...erTools_SM&hash=item43a774906a#ht_8468wt_1163

these are three which are in my budget - do any of these look okay?

I will look at the ones you have pointed out to me, thanks for replying so fast!

 

[AdrianUK]

+1 for the Weller.... its probably the defacto iron.

Also uses a wide range of different size bits & different operating temperatures.

 

[AdrianUK]

The ones you have inked to seem to be hot air rework stations. These are intended for re-working surface mount components. Not a thing fo the beginner I'm afraid.

 

[zorgan]

do weller do reflow hot air guns also? it`s for ease of replacing DC Jacks on laptops and replacing eeprom chips, as doing with a soldering iron is more or less impossible for me.

AdrianUK not exactly a beginner I soldered my first guitar cable when i was 12yrs old and soldered my Amiga 500 kickstart switcher around the year 1990

I have also been on a soldering training course but was not too advanced.

I just do not know anything about the actual equipment makes and models so looking on purchasing advice.

 

[zorgan]

I require one hot air gun with nozzles and a soldering iron.

i.e. rework soldering stations yes

I think some people have just read the topic title then just replied lol

 

[nozspark]

Where I used to work we used the Pace MBTs,,, really good piece of kit for proffessional use; they are expensive, but IMHO you do get what you pay for and the parts will be available forever.

It's no good buying something thats cheap with restricted or non existant availability of parts

 

[bernardgreen]

I would NOT reccommend using a hot air gun to replace the DC power jack on a lap top. The risk of stray hot air affecting other components is too high. The jack normally is soldered into large pads to provide mechanical strength. By the time the air has heated the pads on both sides of the board and the solder in the plated through hole has softened other smaller surface mounted components will be becoming unsoldered. There is a risk that they will move out of alignment with their pads and then shorts between pads will be there when the solder cools.

Dis-assemble the defective jack as far as possible by cutting or filing until it's pins are the only bits left attached to the PCB and then removed the pins one at a time with an iron.

Where the jack is connected to buried layers hot air will not work.

 

[zorgan]

Thanks bernardgreen that`s really useful advice, I will be sure to use the soldering iron for DC jacks, I have replaced a few in the past however I only own a 35w soldering iron from maplins and a 100w de-soldering gun (which I have hardly even used as the tip is huge on it)

to practice mainly on many faulty pcb I have here, removing SMD`s and such I have seen many websites with the Aoyue brand so i may be going for this one perhaps although still undecided as yet.

 

[zorgan]

Where I used to work we used the Pace MBTs,,, really good piece of kit for proffessional use; they are expensive, but IMHO you do get what you pay for and the parts will be available forever.

It's no good buying something thats cheap with restricted or non existant availability of parts

this is way out with my budget.

 

[skotl]

Thanks bernardgreen that`s really useful advice, I will be sure to use the soldering iron for DC jacks, I have replaced a few in the past however I only own a 35w soldering iron from maplins and a 100w de-soldering gun (which I have hardly even used as the tip is huge on it)

to practice mainly on many faulty pcb I have here, removing SMD`s and such I have seen many websites with the Aoyue brand so i may be going for this one perhaps although still undecided as yet.

TBH you just need a 17 or 35w iron, and a solder sucker. Stations are probably ott for what you're looking to do.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=antex+(660-tc+OR+690-sd)

BTW - take no notice of the clown on eBay selling them at stupidly high prices. He's quoting 7-9 days delivery - my guess is that he waits until an idiot buys one from him, and then he goes and buys one for about half of his price.

Beats me that there are enough idiots out there to make the cost of advertising worthwhile.

But it was with great pleasure that I noticed the eBay entries say:

Business seller information
High Noon Investments Ltd

 

[electronicsuk]

TBH you just need a 17 or 35w iron, and a solder sucker. Stations are probably ott for what you're looking to do.

17w is going to be nowhere near enough for soldering laptop power jacks, for the reasons already mentioned regarding the large pads. I have a Weller 45w and have done a couple of such jobs for friends/family/friends-of-friends, and wouldn't want to use anything much lower in wattage than that.

 

[skotl]

Fair enough. So a 35 or 45w iron and a sucker. Do we agree a station is OTT?