Looking for suggestions on solder stations

Afrojedi · November 1, 2021, 4:12am

Hey all. My work station could use a better soldering station. Mine was bought in 2017 it is an Atten 937b ESD soldering iron station.

I was hoping of changing out the soldering iron station with a 2 in 1 hot air rework station and was hoping on getting some recommendations within my budget. I was hoping keeping it under 300aud.

profezzorn · November 1, 2021, 6:24am

Here are the ones I have experience with:

The Soldering Solution Equipment

I’ve had 5 soldering irons in my life. Two of those I wouldn’t recommend to anybody… The first I don’t remember when or where I got my first soldering iron, but it was a 25 watts, not temperature controlled and it looked a lot like this: https://www.amazon.com/Weller-SP23LK-25-Watt-Soldering-Iron/dp/B0009ZD2AG A 25w iron works just fine if you’re soldering wires together, but it takes a while to heat up, and the tip was terrible. The second The second was a 40w “soldering gun”, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Weller-9400PKS-Universal-Soldering-Lighting/dp/B00CLU255A It heated up a lot faster, but it’s still not temperature controlled, so if you keep holding the button down, it gets really really hot, which melts your cable coating unless it’s made from silicone or teflon. I cringe when I think about using this thing on electronics. I left this one behind when I moved to America, and apparently my sister actually used it fairly recently. Fortunately, she was just joining cables. The third https://www.eio.com/products/velleman-vtss5u-low-cost-soldering-station-50w-150-480-c Once I got to America, this was the first soldering iron I got. It is a billion times better than the previous ones, because it’s temperature controlled. I used this soldering iron for quite a long time, but it’s pretty slow, and the tips that come with it aren’t great. Also, I don’t think it’s actually ESD safe, and the temperature control isn’t even graded in C/F. The fourth When I needed a hot-air station, I ended up buying this thing: https://www.amazon.com/YIHUA-Soldering-Conversion-Temperature-Correction/dp/B07SCPZJYS The soldering iron that comes with it is digitally controlled and heats up faster than the velleman, and it comes with better tips. The handle is also thinner and easier to hold. This particular unit doesn’t seem to be available anymore, but there are lots of similar ones, and I think they are pretty good for the money. The fifth https://www.amazon.com/AMERICAN-HAKKO-PRODUCTS-INC-FX-951/dp/B0012B8NW8 I expect this to be the last soldering iron I ever buy. It’s not cheap, but it has a wide selection of tips, heats up fast, it’s ESD safe and has a great standby feature. In addition, the tips integrate the heating element, so if anything ever goes wrong, you just replace the tip and it’s like a whole new iron. The ones I almost bought https://www.amazon.com/Programmable-Portable-Soldering-Interface-Acceleration/dp/B095P9G6GX There is a bunch of…