i was able to pick up a Hakko 888D soldering station for a good price recently and have a few lights that i wanted to mod. the Hakko comes with the station/iron and nothing else. for modding flashlights, what kind of tip and what other supplies should i have on hand? any help is appreciated. thanks!
Flux, solder wick, magnifying lamp, helping hands, fine tweezers, .032 rosin core solder, wire in different guages(Teflon and silicon cased)extra 7135’s for stacking, thread lube, heat conductive grease and adhesive, exacto knife, band aids, and Advil.
Looks like RD pretty well covered it all but the psychiatrist of your choice.
If you need links for where to buy all that great stuff or need more specifics, we should be able to point you in the right direction.
Search ebay for T18 tips or google. Different people like different profiles. General the wider larger tips will work better, they hold more heat and provide more surface contact but for small stuff (smd) you need smaller tips. I have a few different profiles and it depends on what I’m soldering as to which tip I use.
Definitely what RD listed above, also add a good reserve of patience and your ready 
any particular brands of the consumable goods you recommend? i've got the Advil and band aids so far...
Where are you from? Do you have a local Harbor Freight nearby?
yes. got some tweezers and helping hands from there.
Solder Soldering wire
Flux Which solder paste, please?
Silicone wire from ebay or hobby shops. You might want some 24AWG, 20AWG and I like 22 AWG as general purpose wire.
Most all the other stuff RD mentioned can be purchased at Fasttech.
When you head back to HF you might pick this up http://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-precision-pliers-set-31675.html
Almost ever piece will come in handy at some point in this crazy hobby. Lowes also has a similar set and seem high quality, but the price is quite higher to.
Illumination supply and mountain electronics are two top notch US suppliers for modding stuff. IS has Teflon wire that has a nice, slick, tough cover, and ME has silicon wire that is very flexible but not as tough. Both resist heat well. Check over both sites as they differ in product lines. Bookmark both, along with Fasttech, cnqg, international outdoor supply, and whatever threads you find helpful. There are plenty of others as well.
Hemostats cab be very handy.
I can already tell your not going to save much out of your pay check this week.
You better hang on to your wallet, its about to take a rough ride. :bigsmile:
Yeah, my wallet and CC is still smoking, my wife is going to kill me when she sees all the stuff I have been buying...even on "budget" ;)
You have to try your best to beat her to the mailbox and hope she doesn’t see the charges from her bank account.
Notice I said her bank account, its really mine and she refers to it as ours. 
What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine.
I don’t have a bank account, I have a wind tunnel
I still need a reflow station, and to build the Walmart arduino reflow oven
FastTech sell some useful things. Hakko 0.5mm tip. The ‘mechanic’ solder paste is good for reflow. I have been using the 1.5mm solder braid. This Goot flux is good for soldering onto things that don’t really want to be soldered to. Some magnifier glasses like these can help.
ESD tweezers:
http://www.fasttech.com/product/1568808
Do you have a multimeter (ideally one that can measure up to 10A current, and continuity beep/diode test)? They’re pretty useful too for diagnosing any problems. Other than that, some isopropyl alcohol to clean up. A good desolder pump is useful too.
@chloe I didn’t have any luck using the goot flux. Is there something I might have did wrong. I purchased it to solder to aluminum pills which is about impossible anyways.
I haven’t tried soldering to aluminium with it yet (only brass, battery connectors, neodymium magnets; it spits quite a bit so I wear safety glasses). Have you tried it on bare aluminium? I think you need to remove the oxide layer first with a wire/glass fibre brush.
The only thing I can say is that the FT wire is no good at all. When I was first starting out I tried that particular wire along with a few others from FT and they were no good. Get some Kester or MG Chemicals wire and you'll be much happier.
Looks like everyone else has got most of the bases covered!
do you know if that tip will fit an 888D? thanks..