What kind of soldering setup do you use for mods?

>>>>>Read This thread.

Good thread.

I can completely understand people not wanting a solder station if they only solder a few times a month, but a standalone pen just can’t keep up with the heat demands, in my experience. Maybe there is one out there that does it, but I haven’t seen it. If there is one, I’d love to get one for a cheepy backup. But in the end, I think even a budding solderer would be better off with a cheepy off-brand but good-reviewed station than a standalone pen.

I agree completely with darkside:

“A cheap iron will make most never want to solder again.”

Same thing with cheep guitars (Jeez talk about off topic), never buy a beginner a cheep guitar. He/she will destroy their fingers in the first day and never touch the thing again. Just like DS says about cheep under-powered pens.

And another off topic: ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. Saw that in the suggested thread. Once a day, 800-degree flux spatters my face. You can never tell when the flux will spatter or produce little mini explosions. Instant eye injury and end of the flashlight hobby. Blind people don’t need flashlights. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES.

Absolute agree: “What was a pain in the arse is now doable.”

I went with a Hakko station - ’bout $75 a few years ago.

Great soldering tutorial, including the materials needed:

Although most of these features don’t pertain to this type of DIY…Nice to have if this
is what you use to make a living. Pace happens to be a good name but is mid entry
when you start looking at professional grade resoldering multi pump stations…

I’ve used just about every type of soldering equipment out there (including some custom $250,000+ jobbies… the wire stripper alone was over $100,000) and the Pace unit does what it is supposed to. I haven’t found anything better for general purpose rework. It is not good for things like BGAs and specialized surface mount packages. They make other units for that.

Never buy cheap flashlights, you’ll hate them, and never want to use them again!

Ahum, I have to disagree!
Same goes for any tool you talk about, including soldering irons, DMM’s, lux meters, tools, audio equipment etc.
People always say these things and it’s kind of useless.
I’m not going around and telling everybody should buy L lenses for their Canon Eos, because they don’t want to go back to the cheap ones anymore.
Just give the OP a link to a decent soldering iron and be done with it.

Best:
http://www.stanleysupplyservices.com/product-detail.aspx?pn=406-016

Good:
http://www.stanleysupplyservices.com/product-detail.aspx?pn=445-420

Budget:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=19240
or

or

Thanks! See, that’s useful :slight_smile:

Hi everyone, thanks for the info, plenty of food for thought. :slight_smile:

that Hakko clone from Hobby King is interesting, although the $17 price would make me wonder! The hakko 936 (I think) that I have makes soldering a breeze and has allowed me to do stuff (stacking AMC chips, wiring up an Lflex inside a light) that I never would have been able to do with my cheap Radioshack iron. Got mine 2nd hand with some spare tips for $45 :slight_smile:

Yeah I found out the hardway stacking chips ain’t easy with a cheap iron. My first driver mod became DD 1 mode, all but redundant I guess…

I tried ordering that HobbyKing unit but they are out of stock. All support could tell me was they would be back in stock in 60 days. I’ll keep looking.

I bought a Hakko 936 back in 2008 and after one evening’s use I found myself wondering why I hadn’t gotten one sooner. It’s just a joy to use.

I use a hammerhead tipped 80 watt pencil iron that has a variable heat control built into the handle for battery pack stack soldering.

Just recently bought a Hakko: here. Highly recommended by a long-time super tech I work with. He uses a similar Hakko every day on the job. It's working well so far for me, though I'm a beginner.

It's $81 plus shipping - not crazy money.

Also consider a decent magnifying lamp. One that clamps, is adjustable, and won’t tip over. You need to see to solder small. I use a cheap 25W Weller along with a small butane torch and wish I had better.

>>>>>>>One that clamps, is adjustable, and won’t tip over.

I have TWO of these that are combined.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Third-Hand-Soldering-Iron-Stand-Helping-Magnifying-Glass-Jeweler-Loupe-Tool-new-/320985154545?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4abc34c3f1

Everbody here is mecahnaically inclined, so I don’t need to show how to pile two of these atop each other. I haven’t met a job that these can’t hold steady in place. The magnifier is plastic (at least mine is) and pretty low grade, but I use a head loupe or a binocular magnifier so no matter where I look, it’s all in focus. But I see some use the attached glass and swear by it. And five or six hemotats of different sizes and some alligator clips, and you’re ready to go.

If you’re doing huge pcbs or something unwieldy, you might want to tie the stand to a wood base, but they have a heavy enough base that I have never needed one. Also if you’re doing assembly line type stuff, where you’re repeating the same soldering angle over and over, having two of these means that you can have four different arms and alligator clips that can be pre-adjusted to buzz through assembly line solders without fiddling with the arms every time.

Hope this helps!

My soldering setup is a ancient 80w soldering iron I found and this “soldering station” I made from alligator clips, a coat hanger wire and a little solder.

Its got a lot of use when I’m installing car stereos to hold the wires while I solder them.

I don’t mod flashlights though, my eyes aren’t good enough and my hands are too shaky for small parts.

+1 hakko bought from frys electronics a while back, no trouble, soldering all kinds of fine stuff, most appreciable thing i’ve noticed with good irons vs cheap is the tips last a lot longer on my weller/hakko then they ever did on the cheap irons.

I have a 25W weller too and i like it ..I also have a few butane irons just for when there's no electricity

For me both work well for what they do but I’ll be doing more smd soldering soon and I can’t seem to get the Weller point fine enough and the tip is too far from my fingers for control on 0805 chips.