Soldering/desoldering station

[Hornnumb2]

Looking for suggestion for a station around 5-600. I have my 3 channel Hakko that I keep at work for cluster repairs but want a setup for home too. Any suggestions? Thanks

[stj]

seperate units.
hot air, vac desoldering, soldering (T12 based)
a combined station is not a good idea when it fails!

[Cornboats]

I have an Aoyue 2702A hot air, solder and desolder station. The desolder station is next to useless as it needs constant supply of new tips and replacemnt sponges. Solder station is good but again needs replacement tips and these are expensive as each one has its own heater. I wouldn't buy again.

[dicky96]

I have a KSGER T12 soldering iron with a variety of tips

I also have one of these desolder stations

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3301...archweb201603_

Both have proved really good

[diif]

Originally Posted by Cornboats

I have an Aoyue 2702A hot air, solder and desolder station. The desolder station is next to useless as it needs constant supply of new tips and replacemnt sponges. Solder station is good but again needs replacement tips and these are expensive as each one has its own heater. I wouldn't buy again.

I have a Aoyue 474A++ desoldering gun that ate tips until I bought some from Aliexpress, I've not replaced them since.

[stj]

my first T12 tip just wore out!
i only just realised that i'v been using it heavily for 3 years!!!!!!!

[clearchris]

My Aoyue 474A++ is still on its first tip. I think it helps if you use the tip with the largest hole. It came with three, but I don't use the smaller two. I have changed out a few sponges, I use them until they are basically clogged, make sure you wet them before each use. I have a small bottle of water and a syringe on top of the unit. Unit came with silicone grease to grease up the spring so the solder doesn't stick, but that sounds super messy, I haven't used it.

If you go through sponges, I doubt it would be hard to either make some yourself of get them cut for you. There's an industrial seal/gasket/hydraulic place in town, they have all the round cutters needed to make them, but they might not have a sheet of the sponge. $20 would probably get you a lifetime supply.

[eccerr0r]

Originally Posted by stj

my first T12 tip just wore out!

I assume it's because the heater went ∞Ω, or did its tip become so worn that it won't melt solder consistently anymore?

[stj]

neither, the iron tip got so thin it bent and broke off!!
it still gets hot and i bodged it with a grinding disc, but it;s temporaty because i just ordered a nice new one.
(T12-BL)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32859739780.html

[eccerr0r]

Ah, okay. I would have thought the heater itself is a wear item, seems that the metallic tip part usually fails before the heater, which is good I suppose. I suspect the heater will fail soon, no sense in designing a heater that greatly outlasts the heat conductors.

Hmm... Most of my tip failures as of late, are only the copper uncladded tips. The iron clad tips seem to be holding up quite well. Most likely, I may not be soldering as much as most of you all, however.

My Weller solder gun tips, on the other hand, wear down fast as they are uncladded.

---

As an afterthought I decided to play with the tips I have with neodymium magnets... Found that a bunch of my fake hakko slip-on tips appear to be solid iron, and some are iron clad. Dang, cant believe there are a bunch of mostly iron tips, or at least it seems to be mostly iron.

[clearchris]

eccerr0r: Yeah my fake hakko tips are worthless for soldering. I haven't checked with a magnet, but I'm sure they are straight iron. I could use some more tips, but don't know where to get a legit hakko tip. The original chisel tip is pretty versatile and wearing well though.

stj: Wow, that's an amazing price for a t12 tip. I might take the plunge on a t12 setup yet.

[redwire]

I'm happy with my KSGER T12 station, it's actually doing OK.
The chinese can't make a decent stand or handle, and it still doesn't beat my Weller for heat and wetting, but OK overall. Quicko is cheaper, renamed to Laecho/Quecoo.

I have to get more T12 tips, could not find clones of Hakko T12 R for unsoldering SMT parts. I did an SOT-23 and wrecked everything. Either I get hot tweezers or just use two soldering irons. Hot air is no good when you heat up nearby parts.
Any suggestions?

[stj]

shield nearby parts with tin plate or coptan tape.

i use the covers from old tuner cans.

[eccerr0r]

Well all my slip-on tips are fake as far as I know. The iron came with 11 tips, looks like 3 of the 11 seem like they're ironclad, the other 8 appear to be solid iron.

Then again I can't be sure if it's ironclad versus some other material, perhaps nickel or something. But the only thing that is true is that all of them have some sort of magnetic activity...

[stj]

iron is hard to machine,
if they are not copper then they could be steel.

btw, if your burning through the tips then your not cleaning the flux off them fast enough and may be using overly agressive flux.
or you could be forming micro-cracks by using a wet sponge.
sponges are for the bathroom!

[redwire]

Brass wool goes in the garbage immediately - I found it scratches the plating off tips and they don't last.
I've always used a moist sponge and have tips over 10 years old. It works best for me. We've haggled over this before lol
It's more important how you clean the tip, some people don't give that second wipe before putting the iron in the stand when the tip has new flux on it. The first wipe is when you take it out of the stand. Other people have the temp way to high. Or they flood the sponge and make a steam bath showing their low IQ.

Idiots use tip cleaner paste, I found it useless and a piece of wood does better, if some bonehead left the iron on all night.

I haven't seen solid copper tips since I was a kid, copper is too soft when hot and wears fast. All my Hakko tips are magnetic, so some steel there.

[eccerr0r]

Yes the good tips should be ironclad for strength. I'm surprised, brass is softer than the ironclad tips, but yes brass would scrape pure copper tips - which I've had several of that don't have cladding. I'm sure those who made jury rigged solder gun tips know about how weak these are... I also have a 45W iron that had a fully copper tip and due to wear, the whole point and half of the stem are gone (ha.) Also have two ironclad tips for it that have lasted much longer.

I suspect the solid iron tips are the ones I have temperature regulation issues. Grr. Then again not sure which has higher heat capacity though perhaps neither are much better than the other...

[stj]

brass wool is fine, but some scumbags sell steel wool with a yellow coating!!

[diif]

Originally Posted by stj

brass wool is fine, but some scumbags sell steel wool with a yellow coating!!

Also available in Rose Gold ! Luckily I bought it for the holder not the contents.

[eccerr0r]

BOO. That would do it. scumbags with yellow coated steel wool...

Not only that, the steel wool still doesn't clean as well as copper/brass as excess solder would stick to the wool better.

At least it's not yellow colored plastic wool...