Soldering Irons

kychristmas said:
I have never had anything but a great experience with them. I have Purchased many soldering stations for friends and for gifts. They seem verybstraight forward and honest to me.

Considering the Iron is only $12, I think that is pretty reasonable. You get the cord, element and tip. It's not like they are making you buy a whole station.
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I would have to agree Here is what i think happens.


$5 or so for a simmaler size ceramic resistor(heating element)
$1-2 Temp senseor
$5 metal / plastics/wire

Or (just element)

$5 ceramic resistor(heating element)
$1-2 Temp senseor
$50/hr suport tech ansering help emails + the hassle of RMAs
 
kychristmas said:
I have never had anything but a great experience with them. I have Purchased many soldering stations for friends and for gifts. They seem verybstraight forward and honest to me.

Considering the Iron is only $12, I think that is pretty reasonable. You get the cord, element and tip. It's not like they are making you buy a whole station.
Click to expand...

For $11.95 I would have bought one, then I checked the shipping............
Got the same one coming for $7.99 total off of eBay.
 
kingofkya said:
I would have to agree Here is what i think happens.


$5 or so for a simmaler size ceramic resistor(heating element)
$1-2 Temp senseor
$5 metal / plastics/wire

Or (just element)

$5 ceramic resistor(heating element)
$1-2 Temp senseor
$50/hr suport tech ansering help emails + the hassle of RMAs
Click to expand...

Very very plausible!! Here's another thought I just had (light went on very slowly on this one)........... the new element has to be soldered in. How do you solder it in if your soldering iron won't heat up........things that make you go Hmmmmmm :whtf:
 
rstehle said:
Very very plausible!! Here's another thought I just had (light went on very slowly on this one)........... the new element has to be soldered in. How do you solder it in if your soldering iron won't heat up........things that make you go Hmmmmmm :whtf:
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Now that's funny.

Glad you got the iron. I think my point was that they werent jerking you around. If they sold just the element then it would have been similar shipping costs.
 
rstehle said:
Very very plausible!! Here's another thought I just had (light went on very slowly on this one)........... the new element has to be soldered in. How do you solder it in if your soldering iron won't heat up........things that make you go Hmmmmmm :whtf:
Click to expand...

Lol, that's a good one!!

You don't have a backup iron though?
 
Actually I have 2 backups, I have a weller that I have owned for 50 years, and a pencil iron, but I imagine that many folks only have one available.:thup:
 
Heat guns are very effective for removing parts.

You can remove parts rather quickly if you don’t care what falls off also. Heat, tap on bench, 20 parts are now on the bench.

When removing specific parts, just heat it slowly and pull off the part with tweezers. If you’re prepared, you can also place a new part back on.

Of course this only works with single sided parts placement. :lol:
 
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I love my Hakko 888! I used Weller stationed for many years and then when my last one finally gave out, I got the Hakko.
Of course it depends some if you have any plans to do SMD stuff along with possibly having a desoldering function if you want as well. Irons have changed a lot in the last few years (as does everything it seems) so you do have to look around a bit and see what you can find.

I still do run with the "you get what you pay for" idea but it does appear that no one really builds much quality like the "good ole days". The Hakko as well as CSI models do seem to work well and hold up as well as any from what others say though.
 
You could pick up a DIGWDF SpeedIron -- the one all the DIGWDF engineers use. Get projects done in half the time!
 

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I have a little Weller pencil iron that works great. Once I realized how much soldering this Christmas lighting stuff requires... I went ahead & got a Hakko FX-888 station. I really like it. I think I paid on the order of $130 or so.
 
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