Soldering iron recommendation

[Uncle Gump]

I have a few soldering guns... even a 120 watt one I bought when soldered alternator stators became a thing.

I probably have all my bases covered but I like tools and now I really want one of these cool soldering stations. Thanks for corrupting me with this thread Dirtman....

 

[Shran]

I never thought I'd need a soldering station but after using the one I have, I don't know how I lived without it. The adjustable heat is sooo nice.

Most of the electronics soldering I do is replacing capacitors on old computer equipment. It's very delicate and I am even wearing a jeweler's magnifier most of the time. The dual iron setup is VERY handy for removing components that have more than one lead, you can heat both sides at once... or use the big iron to heat up a heatsink that's soldered on while you melt the soldered on legs with the small iron. Probably way past anything most people do but for me it's perfect.

 

[scotts90ranger]

When we got that guy it didn't have the crazy arms and I don't think they had the tip assortment (just a 5 pack of the same ones) and it was still $50. Until we looked it up I figured solder stations were way more expensive than that...

Just today I didn't feel like going to the back of the shop to grab the solder station so I used a HFT soldering iron to put a resistor across a couple LEDs, worked fine but that thing has me spoiled with the adjustable temp, I leave it at 650-700 so it doesn't burn the solder off the tip as bad, had to fight a non tinned tip on the HFT...

I've used a propane torch and a flat blade screwdriver to solder before, that was not pleasant...

 

[ericbphoto]

If I were to buy one again, I would skip the Weller and buy this gun from McMaster-Carr:

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

That's good for big stuff. But too much heat for smaller items. There really is no "one size fits all" solution.

Talking about soldering stations. We ha one at work that I really like. It has 2 adjustable temperature tools. One, a regular soldering iron. The other, a hollow soldering iron hooked up to a vacuum pump. That is the absolute handiest way to desolder circuit board parts.

 

[Eddo Rogue]