What kind of soldering setup do you use for mods?

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.

Just got another soldering iron from a nearby city (central Highlands Vietnam), only $2 soldering irons around these parts but this one actually works really well. It’s got a folded or bent tip which conducts heat much better than a pointed tip and, unlike my last iron, actually retains tinned solder on the tip. Working really well so far for my new mod on the shadow VG10, now I just need to get a new driver as I lost the one I was going to use :expressionless:
Personally I think the head shape is the most important part of a solder setup (and enough heat obviously), although I’m speaking rather soon so I’ll see what happens when I get the new driver.

I use a Weller WESD51 temperature controlled soldering station for most of my electronic mods and repairs, and a Weller W100P for heavy duty repairs. I also have a 12 watt Weller WM-120 for doing surface mount stuff.

I use a Weller soldering station I got at Sears for $50.

With this station, anyone can solder like a pro.

Upgraded to a 937D Hakko clone a few months ago and I’m really liking it. The stand needed some Viagra as the pencil kept drooping but with temp control and a variety of tips it’s been getting everything done much more easily and I found a Ca seller on Fleabay.

I use the antex for almost everything, 18W seems not much but it gets the heat delivered well, and it has a fine round tip. For things that must get really hot (reflowing, soldering to a brass pill) I use the gas torch with or without solder head.

My setup can’t compare to what member Atbglenn has, but this modest little soldering station has served me well for many years.


Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station


Better photo of the iron.


Weller st7 Tip


SE MZ101B Helping Hands with Magnifying Glass

I learnt to solder professionally with a Weller similar to the one atbglenn and Ouchyfoot posted earlier.

I used a cheap Antex 25W at home for quick and dirty jobs until I bought an Aoyue 936 Hakko clone for the delicate work, which I’ve had for a few years now. I have changed surface mount components with the needle tip that came with the Aoyue station. I still use the Antex iron stand though, I think it’s better than the one that came with the Aoyue, for me anyway. Do not bother with Antex irons unless you are prepared to redo everything later.

Temperature control is an absolute must, also ESD is important too with some ICs, and do wear an ESD wrist band if you’re handling them.

The helping hands really do help, as does a good task light. Plus, get some tools with little hooks, and a small flat blade screwdriver to help easing off old components.

Safety glasses are important too. It really hurts when flux spits in your eye. Also if you can set up a fan to blow the fumes away from you it’s better than nothing if you are soldering indoors.

Can you put a link here for your mod please. I cant find it again. Thanks.

Of course in these modern safety conscious/litigious times, it would not be proper to suggest old fashioned 60/40 solder as it is not considered safe, so I won’t

I will say I use it and find it is a lot better than the modern solders and it doesn’t eat the tips of the irons as much.

Sn63 Pb37 is a little bit nicer to work with than Sn60 Pb40

Neither are inherently unsafe, and both are MUCH nicer to work with than any Lead-Free alloy.

PPtk

I use following:

cheap 60W soldering Iron (5:money_mouth_face:
cheap 40W soldering iron (4$ but it died)

KAWAH Adjustable temperature Soldering Iron & Hot air rework station which is cheap product brought 60$ locally.

For flux:

I brought 1$ grase like flux paste but it too bad. can’t clean after solder. it contain parafin
So I still use good old Rosin

But then my mods won’t be RoHS compliant!! :frowning:

I prefer the old solder too. :bigsmile: