Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

There's no closed circuit radio here thank goodness and this newfound buddy of mine has a thing for house music and a couple of large DJ speakers just lying around in the shop here (a bit beat up but they still do the job) and since our musical tastes match and with nobody to bug us, we can crank that SOB all we want I was actually a bit concerned that it might leak through to the boss but thankfully he's in a different building I'm a bit on the opposing side: I CAN'T work without music...complete silence is required sometimes indeed (when I'm analyzing a schematic for instance) but once I get to the actual work, I need something to keep me entertained

O.T About being the "new guy" in a large company: it always means you're either going to be the butt of the jokes and you have to waste energy to put up with that (by humorously taking them on, so you don't end up being regarded as the odd man out which results in even MORE "bullying" so to say, though that's exaggerating, which didn't happen thankfully) or everybody just ignores you...they don't mind your presence but don't give you anything to do either, so you're just kinda stuck there trying to find your place...which is not easy since everybody just happens to be so happy and talkative all the time, brimming with energy, which I'm clearly not. My first two weeks here were a nightmare: with nothing to do, I'd just nap in my chair all the time, occasionally looking up a schematic or watching some videos of Louis, basically reminiscing about the time where I had high hopes that I'd be dealing with board repairs, alongside people like Louis who'd keep me entertained AND educated...not quite. Nobody in the right mind is going to share their "secrets" with you - you're a threat, an insect...can't let anybody else take over >_> I'd look at the time, it's 10AM...after what seems like a lifetime, I look at it again and it's only 10:30AM...UGH >_> I did fix that Jamo subwoofer I wrote a post about, but nothing else noteworthy...how can you prove you're good at it if you're not assigned anything ? Even if you ask for something to do, people usually think they're more professional than you and (kindly) brush you off. Going over to someone's desk and grabbing whatever they're working on doesn't work either

Oh yeah and I'll keep you posted about the soldering gear too

[stj]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I've personally had the pleasure to work with a $500 JCB soldering iron, and there's nothing I couldn't tackle with it,

that's an unfair comparison, not only is it cartridge based, it's 130w for the small one, and around double that for the large version!

[lti]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I've heard from coworkers that the new Pace is even better than the JBC, but I haven't used one. I did get to use a JBC, and it is nice. I use a Metcal at work now, and I don't like the way the tips wear.

[llonen]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Well it came down to choosing between the following for my high end soldering equipment

JBC
Metcal
Pace
weller

Those were the four candidate manufacturers considered, Hako was never a serious consideration for me, although their hot air station seems adequate for now until such time as I source a Pace. I ended up with a mix of sensor-temp and inteli-heat hence the mix of controllers. Some of this came from workshop clearances the rest from Ebay, and while I do hear good things about the new line of Pace I see no need to upgrade from the current equipment.

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I found a pace unit on an auction site a while ago, but I disregarded it entirely because it just looked....well, old and beat-up...not the kind of thing I'd consider doing laptop boards with - just seemed so clunky and outdated. The kind of thing you'd fix CRTs with The price wasn't low either.

[llonen]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I would not go back any further than the inteli-heat or sensor-temp range this is a good example of the kind of equipment I have in the workshop, when I get home I will put up some more detailed pics if you are interested. The older kit is very difficult to obtain parts for, in particular tips etc.

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Had another annoying experience with the Gordak today: it didn't stand a chance against a heatsink and my braid stuck to the board a couple of times too, since this shop is "against using solder suckers", which I don't have on me either must admit, and I ordered a couple off Ali...the tip was probably not suited for this either, as it's the small curved pointy kind which I use all the time....I'm considering using a second station which has a beefy tip on it all the time, though I didn't have this issue with my Baku over at my former shop. It had a similar tip on it but was worn down so it was slightly thicker - that could be another reason. Still, I HATE soldering when the equipment is not up to the task and I have to struggle....


EDIT: any thoughts on "Ersa" stuff ? :| Just something I ran across. Then there's T12 tips used in stuff like THIS. Very good reviews on this and I was actually told a while back to get myself one of these since the price-quality ratio is good....ok, so it IS from Ali which is a red flag right off the bat, but hey...

Another variation here This one uses some unusual tips, although the pics are slightly contradictory, since the 90w variant appears to use standard sleeved tips like mine does, but the tips depicted in the bottom-right for that model appear to have a collar towards the tip which would make it impossible to slide the retaining collar over that part, so which one is it, dear seller ? The 150w looks more "potent", with beefy tips suited for large jobs. I'm not sure how easy it would be to obtain those tips when they wear out or if there exist finer versions too.....

[stj]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

stick with the T12 irons, the problem with the RF iron and ersa stuff is going to be cost of extra tips.

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Found a Quick iron which used T12 tips, but realistically speaking, outside its obviously fancier nature and probably more advanced/precise controls, what's the difference between that and one of those 40 dollar "kit-like" doohickeys ? I reckon the power, hence the time it takes for the iron to heat up and STAY heated when soldering, is no doubt greater (shorter time) with the more expensive thing...no brianer there. BUT when it comes to actually doing WORK on larger stuff with a larger tip....that's where my poor little Gordak seems to suffer. I was thinking of trying a beefier tip on the Gordak FIRST, just to rule it out and THEN look to invest in T12 stuff. Forgot to mention I moved over to a new location, so I no longer have access to that Yihua or whatever it was that used T12 tips.

The Gordak funnily enough is fairly good for SMD stuff, but heatsinks or other large thermal mass components are a no go....at least not without cranking the temperature all the way up to 480C (theoretical) which results in some black deposits and charring on the tip which I doubt is beneficial and shouldn't be kept cranked like that all the time, especially since it doesn't have an auto shut-off feature. I actually forgot it on while I went over to our head building further down the road and after half an hour or so it was still on....poor tip

[llonen]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

If your work-piece indicators suggest a high thermal mass, then you need to match not only the hand-piece but the tip as well as you could be loosing out on heat transfer across the bridge etc. I am sure you know all this anyway, that said even my pace 80 watt stuff will perform poorly if I am using a smd tip to remove larger thermal masses.

I have taken a good look through the Ersa catalogue, they have an extensive product range, and seem priced somewhere between Hako, Weller and Pace that said I have no experience with their products. I would suggest if you are serious try and arrange a rep to demo some of their systems or see what second hand units are about.

Mainly my decision to use Pace, specifically sensor-temp and inteli-heat was informed by, 1) my old place of work used them along side Weller 2) Its a very well established platform 3) Parts and kit are still readily available to the second hand market at much more realistic prices and 4) I got lucky on several workshop clearances.

As to the whole T12, I guess the original hako system is fine and I have tried them, that said I would probably stay away from the various cheap clones, my nod to the whole cartridge based system is in the form of the Pace TD100 system a very nice if a little pricey on replacement tips again look through the second hand market for these I have had some very good deals.

Again looking back at second hand and or well established systems you have the benefit that others and early adopters have already done the legwork for you, that said if your looking for convective hot air reflow I am likely to be staying away from Pace or Weller possibly on account of the high cost of replacement heater elements.

Hope this ramble helps

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Hope this ramble helps

It does - the more info I collect, the better. I have another soldering iron lying around unused at the shop in the main building. It's called Solomon I'll drop by tomorrow to see if I can snag it It's got a pretty fat tip on it from what I recall and the guy who used it said it did a very good job amazingly, but he stopped using it when he moved on to doing more and more SMD stuff and ordered the Yihua combo I mentioned (the one with T12 tips - still, it didn't impress me to make me want to keep it, it was more frustrating than anything, perhaps I sucked at it)...

For the record, I DID try a fatter tip on the Gordak but it still didn't flow properly, or perhaps my expectations are too high and the thermal mass on that thing is crazy, especially since I'm trying to use braid which is clearly NOT suited for removing bloody heatsinks ! I'm actually inclined to crack out my soldering GUN for the job, but I'm not sure how well the supply (the one in my other thread, the Tyco) would play with having EMF sh!t on it...I don't know: has anyone ever damaged anything with a soldering GUN ? I use it at home on everything, since it's the only thing I've got here and never had an issue, even on very small stuff like my car's remote key fob which had a busted microswitch for instance......

[stj]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

are you "diode gone wild" on utube??

i say that because he, and now you - are the only people i know who use a soldering gun on electronics!
(your in the same country too. - did i blow your cover?)

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

No, you did not
I do have a youtube channel, just not electronics-related...don't think I'd be that good at it

[llonen]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Here are some images of the majority of the soldering equipment I have in regular use, the solder fume extractor filter in case your interested is a older style Purex I would not like to add up the cost of all this were you to obtain the modern Pace equivalents and the Plato solder bath when I priced that up it was rather shocking.

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I came across that MBT one here as well (or a slightly different model, but MBT still) but couldn't tell what tips it uses so I had no idea if they're still obtainable new or if other variants are supported.

I also found a Pace but it didn't come with any accessories, which is pointless...

[llonen]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Sensor-temp and Inteli-heat generally take the same tips, well that's a little oversimplification, but generally they do with certain exceptions relating to things like the thermojet systems, thermo tweezers and solder extractors which have their own tips. TD100 and TD130 are current cartridge based solutions, but the tips are readily available for inteliheat and sensor temp systems as are the hand-pieces and replacement heaters etc. They tend to be more expensive though and I have yet to find any cheaper clones, The MBT 250 is compatible with 8 sensor temp hand-pieces and used with an adaptor will so I am told work with Inteli-heat I will one day get around to testing this. The ST115 is compatible with both systems and the ST 30 is only compatible with Inteli-heat.

Up there you will also see a pace thermo stripper which I would not be without, the Weller wps is a 80 watt system which uses some really nice smaller LT series tips for which there are a number of very cheap clone tip sets for. This I use mainly for micro soldering and other SMD stuff although I obtained the TD100 to essentially replace this but I ended up with both systems.

You can find complete Pace sets come up from time to time, but mostly your going to have to get all your accessories separately unless you get lucky and they do hold value.

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

Was thinking of getting one of these just for light and medium usage at home, so I have at least SOME way of tackling SMDs...no way that's currently happening with my GUN

There are countless such models sold by many on Ali, so I doubt there's any major difference between them - they're all STM32 at the end of the day and use T12 tips. That's another reason why I'm getting it: I want to try out T12 tips. The iron at work uses Hakko-style tips, so I can try out both.

[vinceroger69]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

this is the station i have i use it most days as my main iron
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/QUIC...5e1b4c4dIFVlkU
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10Pc...1a7f4c4dEb1xk9

[Dannyx]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I believe it's the same thing as what I linked too, just under a different seller and brand and in kit form....is it not ? :|

[vinceroger69]

Re: Soldering station thoughts and guidelines

I believe it's the same thing as what I linked too, just under a different seller and brand and in kit form....is it not ? :|

yes looking closer as now on my laptop, yes does look the same the soldering handle is different in your setup though and yes mine was kit it works well though.
dave did a review on the iron you linked the other day it looks a good iron although his kit has the same handle i use on mine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnTeHX10RSU