Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

[Dannyx]

Oh, you guys seem to have misunderstood that THE GUN is all I have to work with No, I actually have two soldering stations on hand: a Gordak 938A at work (one of the only tools this joint actually gave me when I started !) and the KSGER T12 thingy at home. Same for THE GUNS: I keep one at home ready to go for tinning wires and larger stuff and another one in my toolbox at work for when I'm on the go and I need to just swap a cap or something really quick. I would never attempt to do SMD with THE GUN, although I did replace a microswitch on the key fob for my car at home with it once and thankfully nothing got zapped - I was just a dumb kid who knew nothing about electronics back then Whatcha gonna do.....

[eccerr0r]

I only use my gun for big stuff pretty much, it's too big for ICs anyway. The wire must reliably pass 5 amperes or it won't get soldered with the gun. At 100W it dumps more power than any of my pencil solder irons but it too is dwarfed...

...by the hot air...

gun?

[captainKKK]

ITS TIME TO BE A PROFESSIONAL......or try to be....

862D+ hot air / iron station is $8.99, delivered on eBay right now and the Professional 3in1 Soldering Iron Hot Air Gun SMD Power Supply Solder Kit Station with DC probes and meter is $11.99

Is the 862+ any good? Its just like this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bOtieOXszE

or you can get the exact same thing on Amazon for $99.99

[eccerr0r]

Dang, is that real? Shipping will cost that much by itself for the weight.

Watch out, that thing is covered by the 25% tariff for us... As much as other people think, we're paying for it.

But it's good spare parts at the very least for my 898D+ ... of equal crap caliber.

tempting...

[diif]

Hmmmm a seller of nothing but white t-shirts suddenly selling a compressor, hot air station and a gaming chair for $9.99 delivered. If that doesn't scream bullshit scam I don't know what will. Same for the $19.99.

[Dannyx]

I got my 858D from Ali, free shipping of course
I keep it at home along with the Ksger T12 iron because there's no way I'm "donating" stuff to this joint - that's THEIR task, not mine.
But you're right: if we don't even have cheap stuff like that around here, there's no way I could ever expect to get stuff like Quick or JBC around here...disappointed big time. It's sad when guys like these prosper and end up being the biggest firm in the city - can't do with it, can't do without it ! I think I need to "graduate" from this place soon.......

[stj]

Originally Posted by captainKKK

ITS TIME TO BE A PROFESSIONAL......or try to be....

862D+ hot air / iron station is $8.99, delivered on eBay right now and the Professional 3in1 Soldering Iron Hot Air Gun SMD Power Supply Solder Kit Station with DC probes and meter is $11.99

that has to be the "refund scam"
they ean interest on your money for a month before it gets returned - sometimes they just run away and ebay/paypal covers the loss.

that's why i dont use ebay unless i have to, AliExpress cracks down hard on bullshit.
if a seller gets 2 strikes, they are bared from Ali for 2years.
and they cant create a shadow account because they are identified via their bank account - so making up new names wont work.

[Dannyx]

About the X cap across a GUN's switch: should I look for a particular value, or would any X cap be enough ? I guess pick the biggest one that can fit in there, since size increases with capacitance...

[redwire]

Originally Posted by Dannyx

About the X cap across a GUN's switch: should I look for a particular value, or would any X cap be enough ? I guess pick the biggest one that can fit in there, since size increases with capacitance...

I find 22nF is the minimum and 33-47nF works best. Cheap or small uses 10nF which helps only a bit. I am speaking from the 120VAC world and 240VAC might be a bit different.
Large >500VA transformers I add a series 33-100R resistor to dampen ringing, like a snubber.

When you add the cap across the switch, instead of a big many kV spike when the switch opens, instead you will see ringing waveform because the cap+transformer make a resonant tank circuit that fades out. So too small a cap and a spike still shows up, and too big a cap and it rings for a long time or even resonates.

[stj]

you need a resistor in series to limit the current or it will try to drive the heater through the cap.

[vinceroger69]

Originally Posted by stj

that has to be the "refund scam"
they ean interest on your money for a month before it gets returned - sometimes they just run away and ebay/paypal covers the loss.

that's why i dont use ebay unless i have to, AliExpress cracks down hard on bullshit.
if a seller gets 2 strikes, they are bared from Ali for 2years.
and they cant create a shadow account because they are identified via their bank account - so making up new names wont work.

At £8.99 its worth a risk lol either way i will get the cash back i will update if i get a package or a refund.

[Dannyx]

BTW - I started soldering with a fat bevel tip at work just to see how it works and I love it: great thermal mass, perfect for wicking....awesome Ok, that camel toe of a tip is not going to work on microscopic SMDs, but it can touch up larger SMDs just as well.

[captainKKK]

I called ebay today about it and they say the seller is legit but there is an issue with his account. They told me to expect receipt of my purchase. (LOL, I wish). But I then also ordered this better one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Professiona...198e%7Ciid%3A1 and got this too
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10A-30V-DC-...198e%7Ciid%3A1

why not?

I saw the same thing on Amazon for $99.99 (the 2 in 1) and tried post a review of it, but Amazon wasn't having approval of my references to the $9.99 .....LOL

WOW OUCH, if any of this is true, China has been ripping us good all this time.....?

I hope one of the hot guns show up b/c I need to replace an AS15-F on my Sammy's T-con

[llonen]

Well its probably what they are worth in parts / bill of materials anyway.

[diif]

They are clueless whoever you spoke too, or they don't want to admit it.
The account has clearly changed hands and is now stuffed with goods at unbelievably low prices. The only other vendors coming close on these low prices are a handful of brand new Chinese sellers.
Definitely a scam but the more it costs PayPal.ebay the more likely they are to crack down on this type of scam.

[captainKKK]

It just don't get any better than this:Price:US $8.66 Free shipping to your door:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/862D-2in1-S...8AAOSwLuJc42~H

Oh and I did give the eBay associate the third degree about my purchase of this item and they said it did seem to be a low price but not to worry, if I did not receive or it was not functional that eBay would reimburse me.....

it kinda like hoping you will win the lottery.........

[mariushm]

tip: always check previous items sold and marks

most likely this guy's account got hacked and hacker changed an existing listing's title and images.
People order and don't complain for 2-3 weeks (because item is heavy, and no tracking info to keep shipping free, and other excuses)
hacker at end of those weeks can use the paypal money to buy gift cards or bitcoin/eth/monero/whatever and nuke the paypal account.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dannyx

BTW - I started soldering with a fat bevel tip at work just to see how it works and I love it: great thermal mass, perfect for wicking....awesome

YAY!
You've finally discovered the love for "fat tips".
.
.
Okay, that came out sounding a bit wrong.
But dirty jokes aside, this is what I have been recommending you (and everyone else in other threads) all along. ... and for that exact same reason - thermal mass.

In contrast, I have a sharp blade tip, and that thing has pretty much not seen any use. The very few times I tried it, I was always disappointed.

Originally Posted by diif

They are clueless whoever you spoke too, or they don't want to admit it.

Or the respondent/rep simply doesn't give a crap, because it's not their money. Kind of like workplaces where your company provides whatever item at their expense. Then employees tend to not give a crap about wasting that item, simply because the company pays for it and not them.

Originally Posted by captainKKK

It just don't get any better than this:Price:US $8.66 Free shipping to your door

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS.

The very few times where I had an exception to this were items from sellers who simply didn't care about making money off of their item, but would just rather see it go to someone who can use it instead of throwing it away. Those, and mis-marked items (for example, I bought a Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU for $4 with shipping, simply because it was mislabeled as a Core 2 Duo E6600 and no one bid on it.) Deals like these are RARE on eBay anymore.

[stj]

the blade tip is good for tinning tracks and using desoldering braid.

[Dannyx]

Originally Posted by stj

the blade tip is good for tinning tracks and using desoldering braid.

Haven't used one yet, though I have seen Louis using it to clean up the remaining solder around the edges of QFNs after soldering them with hot air. I also linked to a very small one, similar to a Micropencil tip, some posts back.

I'll also start looking into some bevel tips