I am about to order a soldering station, I have looked around and came up with these. What do yall recommend out of these 3? Or if you have another suggestion. I’m leaning towards the weller…
I know this question has been asked a thousand times, so sorry in advance!
I like Weller, but it has to be 24 volt with temperature control (Not only variable temperature).
They are just about impossible to wear down, they only need a new tip once in a while.
24v with temp control, those are the $100 stations correct? The blue ones?
I am trying to be very budget friendly, I won’t be doing anything wild and crazy.
I’ve actually been recently reading a bit more about soldering stations, looking about upgrading. I have that exact Yeehaa! (yihua 936) clone and for the price it’s really hard to argue with it, I love the thing and with the right tips there aren’t a lot of things it can’t do. Another advantage is the tips are really cheap. A key to being able to solder big and small things is the right tip, you always want the biggest top that will fit, that is probably a mistake a lot of people make. All of this being said the Yihua and all similar clones generally have one flaw, the heater element and tips don’t fit as close as a real Hakko, I’ve heard some shimming makes a world of differences and as I said it still works great. But if you want to really dump a ton of heat in it becomes a problem. I still can solder wires onto copper MPCBs thermally stuck to a big head no problem. The solution though gets a bit more expensive and that is stations with integrated tips, where the heater is part of the tip. These have amazing thermal transfer but the only Chinese one I’ve seen (and the one I’m thinking of buying) is the Aoyua 2900 series. And the times are much more expensive.
Looking at those 3 options I would go with the Yihua for one reason, I’m pretty sure those other two are not temperature controlled. Those knobs are just a reostat that adjust the power going to the tip and as with any old pencil type the actual temperature is regulated by the balance of energy into energy out into the atmosphere. The Yihua on the other hand is temperature controlled so it has a sensor in the tip and it adjusts the power to match a temperature. You may think this is important for controlling the temperature accurately but in my opinion it’s kind of irrelevant, I keep the dial on my Yihua maxed at all times. For flashlight stuff everything is generally big and thermally tolerant enough to just leave it maxed. The reason it’s important is when you start soldering something all that heat gets sucked out of the tip and the controller sees the temp drop and starts dumping on more power. The dumb system of the others doesn’t do anything so you run out of heat when soldering things that really need that heat. And because of this system the heater core in tip system of the Yihua (or any clone for that matter) can actually deliver a lot more heat to the tip. The others dump a lot of heat on the shaft of the iron because they need to keep from overheating.
Probably if you want Weller, but you can get them from other brands for less money.
I do recommend getting a 24V iron with temperature control. I have always used Weller and know they are good, but I have also seen people using cheap Chinese clones that works fine.
Some of the advantage with 24V are:
No mains voltage in solder iron, this makes the iron safer.
Low leakage current, due to the transformer, i.e. less risk of damaging chips.
Real temperature control is also a big advantage, you can have a iron with lots of watts, without it getting too hot (My normal iron is 80W).
I’d welcome a pointer to genuine tips that fit the Yiuha 936
(I find a lot of claims, but nothing I’m sure of)
specifically tips suitable for soldering to flashlight drivers
I’m using a little wedge shaped tip now
and any reference to something more about “shimming” — sheet copper?
> I keep the dial on my Yihua maxed at all times.
I did that but while I did, the tip developed terrible black scale persistently all over the tip (despite repeated cleaning with the Hakko FS-100 paste)
so I’d only get the solder to melt right after dipping the tip into that chemical.
I’m guessing that’s cheap metal used in the tip —??
Once the scale returned it wouldn’t melt the solder, despite ample flux.
Setting the temp dial halfway reduced that quite a bit
+1 I’ve got a 10 year old Weller WESD51 Soldering Station, and a few other Weller soldering irons. None of them have let me down. If you take care of the tips, they will last for a very long time. I only use Weller branded tips with mine. I don’t know about the Hakko clones, but the real Hakko’s are great. I have a couple of those as well.
> Hakko 936 tips, or a quality equivalent….
> Zoro.com, Plato brand tips
Can you recommend a specific tip good for flashlight work, from that site? I’ve bought several small wedge tips from 3rd party sources via eBay and they oxidize really fast.
The Hakko tips cost as much as the cheap soldering stations (well, they’re probably worth the price, but for just a few small flashlight soldering tasks every now and then, that’s a lot of money)
I get “74 results” and the page is still loading but hasn’t shown anything for quite a while, I’ll have to figure out which adblock/malware protection I have to defeat to get it to display.
I use a ATTEN 8586 clone for rework. Soldering + Hot air Station. About 60-80 USD.
Pros: Cheap soldering tips. Pretty universal handle.
For heavy soldering I use a non temperature controlled 25 watts and 60 Watts Irons.
These are some times needed for that perfect soldering on those pills and some times on the MCPCB.
These days I am using a BAKON 950D with a hakko t12 handle. Its quite nice to work with and on the dot temperature calibration which I was unable to with the ATTEN. You can get it for about 22 USD in the regular Chinese sites we buy flashlights from.
I bought this soldering station for $10 and change on sale, ( if you sit on the webpage for a minute or so, it will offer a discount), that was recommended by quite a few people and use these tips
I doubt these tips are original, although, some of them do have what look like original Hakko markings. I have used most of them, and as long as there tinned, they work well. The set I got, doesn’t come with the tip I think is the perfect size (T-1.8D), but the 1.2D and a few of the others, do everything I could ask.
I’ve had this station for close to a year, and although I don’t use it daily, it hasn’t let me down.
Mine’s a Yihua 937D with 6 tips:
Soft point
Thin sharp point
3 mm wedge
3 mm 45 degree oval
1 mm 45 degree oval
7 mm 45 degree angle
I use the 3 mm oval for soldering wires to mcpcb’s and solder wicking
1 mm oval for most wire work or small smd’s
7 mm for 7135 removal
To work on led4 power drivers I’ve needed to use the sharp point but rarely otherwise
Some like the 3 mm wedge but I rarely use it
I usually turn the temp down between operations and back up ~400 or more to solder. My tips have a tan coating that seems pretty durable, other than wiping off old discolored solder I don’t do any maintainence.
I have iron #2 that you linked. I’d say it’s only meh. The switch on the base died on me after very light use in a year. I didn’t like the temp control enough to replace the switch. I currently just use the soldering iron part by itself. I currently solder so infrequently that I’m still using this iron. + I can no longer solder correctly anymore. I still have to figure out how to do a good job 100% of the time with the use of one hand.
& when I do I would definitely look for an upgrade.
Say, will this be your 1st iron? If so then I will say it’s an more then adequate unit. It’s certainly much better than my 1st iron (a $10 ratshack iron.) This weller will at least get up to soldering heat within a few minutes. My 1st iron took ages (I felt could go get a beer & down most of it whilst waiting for it to warm up)
Then I’d pass on this Weller “station” if I were you. The temperature control thing is just a simple rheostat. It’s very inaccurate & didn’t hold its temp levels immediately after the soldering iron’s tip touched something. I’d hold out for a better station.
I’ve got my eyes on the weller wesd51, most likely that’s what I’ll end up with. I have learned throughout the years to buy the right one the first time. It saves money, time, and a lot of aggravation. Thanks for all your input everyone! I’m slowly building a nice little electronics store! I’m about to place my 4th order for supplies. Came here to ask a few questions and now I’m hooked.