My new soldering iron

rkcstr · May 9, 2008

Building my drivers takes a toll on my soldering iron I currently have... I go through tips like crazy and I just ran out. So, I decided to upgrade:

http://www.aoyue.com/en/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=359

I've read great things about Aoyue products, including this one. But, now I can accurately set my temp of the iron so it doesn't oxidize my tips away, and doesn't kill components as easily. Plus, lots of fun hot-air rework ;D

The place I bought it from is http://www.sra-solder.com/, actually their ebay store, http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZrandyruby. Randy's the guy in charge and he's a very reasonable guy. I bought the last one he had on auction, but I'm guessing he'll put up more for the $145+$18 ship, but he also has other models. Plus, if you want accessories, you can buy them from his site and he'll included them for no extra shipping with your order, which is really nice. I bought it around 11:30am and it went out same day!

I can't wait to get it, lol.

john_lawson · May 9, 2008

wow thats nice

Razako · May 9, 2008

All I have is a $20 pos soldering iron that heats up to 900 degrees and kills any delicate electronics that I work on. Main reason why I'm not into making DIY lasers.

nikokapo · May 9, 2008

lol i have an 8 pesos soldering cheapo iron, that'd be 2,67 dollars

rkcstr · May 9, 2008

Haha, yeah, it's definitely more expensive than the standard iron... but they work MUCH better than the standard unregulated iron. Plus, I'll be putting it to use a lot, so it is worth it for me.

nikokapo · May 9, 2008

of course; hey will you post pics of your work after you try it out

?

member02 · May 9, 2008

yea... i wish I hadn't bought my $80 radiocrap iron, but it still works good enough.

rework would be nice though, show us how the rework gun works, I've lost a bunch of ICs to mistake soldering jobs (non-inverted PCB boards - forgot to flip image over)

jamilm9 · May 9, 2008

i have a $13 soldering iron which i can adjust from 5 to 60 watts.

rkcstr · May 9, 2008

jamilm9 said:
i have a $13 soldering iron which i can adjust from 5 to 60 watts.

That doesn't really regulate temperature, though. The tip temp can still be be really high, the tip just doesn't heat up as quickly at lower wattage. The good thing about temperature regulation is you can set it to the minimum temperature over the melting temp of solder to minimize the possibility of damaging components.

As for the rework, I can't wait to try it. I'll get some pics up when I get it

Benm · May 10, 2008

Really nice buy.

I'm considering getting a soldering iron from the same brand but the one without the hot air component - dont recall the exact type number.

So how is the iron itself? Good temperature regulation even if you try to heat up something large (thick wire, copper islands on pcbs and such)? And also, how is the quality/durability of the tips?

Things · May 10, 2008

lol, if I ever needed a temp controlled soldering iron, i'd buy a variac for $200 down the road, then i can use it for my HV stuff too

VW · May 10, 2008

Wow, that looks awesome. So, other than really proffesional irons like you have, are there any decnt irons for us cheap skates to look out for? Damage to components sounds nasty, especially when I'm wanting to start constructing lasers...

rkcstr · May 10, 2008

Benm said:
So how is the iron itself? Good temperature regulation even if you try to heat up something large (thick wire, copper islands on pcbs and such)? And also, how is the quality/durability of the tips?

I'm not sure about how well it works yet, it was just shipped yesterday, so I don't have it :-/

It does have a realtime digital temp readout, so you can know if it's dropped. It has a 35W iron on it, so it should be pretty capable of maintaining temperature even on large items, but that may also depend on the tip.

I'm not sure about the tips yet, but I think they take a standard size (I saw mention they can use Hakko tips), so you could probably buy another (maybe better?) brand if you want.

Things said:
lol, if I ever needed a temp controlled soldering iron, i'd buy a variac for $200 down the road, then i can use it for my HV stuff too

Well, I have a variac, but I'd rather have something that's well designed to do exactly what I need, take the guess work out of it. Plus, I wanted the hot-air rework station.

VW said:
Wow, that looks awesome. So, other than really proffesional irons like you have, are there any decnt irons for us cheap skates to look out for? Damage to components sounds nasty, especially when I'm wanting to start constructing lasers...

I just used a 12W pencil iron from Weller before, I think they're like $12. But, I'd get at least a grounded one. Radioshack has this digital readout temp controlled one for $40, but I've never tried it:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...&cp=2032058.2032236.2032313&parentPage=family

or you could go with the Aoyue 937, which is similar in features to the one above, but it's about $20 more with shipping:

http://store.sra-solder.com/product.php?xProd=6145

Benm · May 10, 2008

That 937 is the model i'm considering. As far as i can tell the soldering part should be the same as the station you ordered. For $50 its really cheap for a regulated iron with digital readout.

Using a variac or something similar makes the power adjustable but doesnt regulate the actual temperature - pretty useless for most applications.

drlava · May 10, 2008

I really like the fume sucker on that station, let me know if it works well! fumes are a big nuisance when I go to town soldering.

rkcstr · May 10, 2008

drlava said:
I really like the fume sucker on that station, let me know if it works well! fumes are a big nuisance when I go to town soldering.

That's another reason I got this model, as I'm concerned about with all of the soldering I do, I don't want to be breathing those fumes in, I know they're not good for your health.

My new soldering iron

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