Solder Station

[crashNburn]

Hi everyone, I am new to this site, and really like it so far! I need some advice as to where I can buy a solder station with an iron, and a solder-sucker attachment. The solder-sucker has a hollow tip and a chamber in the handle which collects the hot solder via the vaccuum in the main part of the base. A company I worked for had them and I don't remember who makes them. Can't find on Ebay...anyone know of any electronics specific auction sites, or other places where I might pick one of these creatures up?? Thanks

 

[tunedwolf]

this is a link to a recent thread..

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/spare-parts.24166/?highlight=Aoyue

 

[dknguyen]

The cheapest desoldering iron/suckers are from radio shack. If you want one that comes in a station by itself (or with another soldering iron and statioN) it costs much much more.

 

[Sceadwian]

Solder suckers aren't as usefull as they used to be because of the increased use of surface mount chips. You can usually get buy just fine using only desoldering wick for parts that have large globs of solder. It's also worth looking into a hot air rework station, seems you can find them on e-bay new for about $140 US or so.

 

[RadioRon]

I have been happy with Weller irons and Hakko hot air pencils. I don't recommend Metcal. For de-soldering, I use a portable solder-sucker device that is simply a plastic spring-loaded piston tool that you use in concert with your iron. This has been quite satisfactory for coarse work, and for fine work I prefer to use solder-wick. My experience with de-soldering irons is that they gum up quickly and end up in the junk box.

It is worthwhile to invest in a good quality variable temperature regulated iron station and some good pens. Good pens with good tips last a fairly long time in my experience.

Another point to bear in mind is that no-lead solder requires a higher temperature tip than leaded solder so having a variable temperature control is handy so that you can set to suit.

 

[hjames]

Fill in your location if you want some useful pointers...

I have a habit of haunting the dovebid site - every now and then they have some pretty good stuff - buried among all the horribly overvalued junk. They don't deal much with small stuff though.

I only have a spring loaded solder pump, but then I don't take apart too much stuff. For the bulk desoldering sessions, I just use the heat gun/paint stripper and toast away. Less frustration than trying to wriggle every last pin.

BTW, any particular reason not to recommend Metcal's? They're obviously pricey and replacement tips are doubly so, but the 5 second warmup and freakish amount of heat they can pump into a joint are pretty useful.

 

[RadioRon]

I found the Metcal irons that we brought in did not work as well as the other makers. Personally, I didn't like the feel of the pencil, and it did not reflow solder as quickly as I would like. Its interesting to see that in a large engineering operation, the Metcal irons were always pushed aside in favor of other models.