Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dannyx

Another aspect is the tips: the T12 seem to use like a rod that slips into the handpiece somehow, as opposed to the ones I'm used to where the tip is a short sleeve that slips over the heating element.

Those are probably the Hakko-style 900M series of tips that you are talking about - I hate those with a passion, particularly the cheapo ones. Only the genuine Hakko ones are worth a damn, and good luck finding those. The knock-off 900M tips are pure garbage in terms of performance. With my KADA 852D+ iron piece cranked all the way up (40W max. power output for the iron), I barely get the same equivalent heat output as my 30W Radio Shack iron... and that's if I can get solder to stick on those cheap nasty tips that came with the KADA iron.

Meanwhile, most T12 tips I've never had problems with. And their thermal response is very quick. Sure they may be more expensive and not as readily available (yet), but they are miles better. Plus, having one or two quality T12 tips is much much better than having a bag of garbage 900M knockoff tips that most aren't worth even for scrap metal. I only have three T12 tips, and rarely need to swap them between jobs, because those 3 tips can accomplish what a box of 900M knockoffs probably still can't.