Soldering station worth it?
rwgast_logicdesign
Posts: 1,464
Right now Im using a 20 dollar weller 40 watt iron. It does just fine by me except im not sure if the tips are compatible with standard ones out there, it has a much fatter base on the tip than all my generic 30 watt irons, is someone could clear up how to find tips thatd be awesome, as of now I just go to home depot where I bought it.
Anyways The iron is pretty decent heats up quick works alot better than those crappy wal mart irons. Ive been soldering for years so my technique is decent I have never burned a part out with this iron LED, IC whatever and I even use it to desolder dip chips. But Ive been looking at a soldering station on spark fun for 40 dollars its 50watt adjustable tempature. I plan to do a run of boards real soon so ill be soldering alot more and im going to be doing smd work.. Is there any reason to switch irons?? I have no idea why i should adjust the tempature if im not burning parts up the hotter it is the less time you spend with the iron contacting the chip. And if an adjustable iron is necessary when doing alot of soldering and smd would something like this work? http://dx.com/p/60w-soldering-iron-with-variable-temperature-control-110v-ac-58371?item=10 I acually like the style of this iron and am considering it anyway. I would rather put my money into some other stuff like a board vice and esd matt, so can someone please explain to me the benefit of an a soldering station set up, so I can figure out if its something I should hold off on and put my cash into other places for now?
Anyways The iron is pretty decent heats up quick works alot better than those crappy wal mart irons. Ive been soldering for years so my technique is decent I have never burned a part out with this iron LED, IC whatever and I even use it to desolder dip chips. But Ive been looking at a soldering station on spark fun for 40 dollars its 50watt adjustable tempature. I plan to do a run of boards real soon so ill be soldering alot more and im going to be doing smd work.. Is there any reason to switch irons?? I have no idea why i should adjust the tempature if im not burning parts up the hotter it is the less time you spend with the iron contacting the chip. And if an adjustable iron is necessary when doing alot of soldering and smd would something like this work? http://dx.com/p/60w-soldering-iron-with-variable-temperature-control-110v-ac-58371?item=10 I acually like the style of this iron and am considering it anyway. I would rather put my money into some other stuff like a board vice and esd matt, so can someone please explain to me the benefit of an a soldering station set up, so I can figure out if its something I should hold off on and put my cash into other places for now?
Comments
As far as tips go, they are usually listed on the box of the iron. If not you'll have to google the name of that soldering iron and find compatible tips
that way.
You don't need the tip of your soldering iron to be a thin as a smt part's leads.
I purchased a couple of tips like that when I purchased my soldering iron. I thought they would be useful for small chips. I found the fine tip didn't transfer much heat. I've ended up using the super fine tips for melting holes in plastic.
I would suggest that whichever iron you choose, to get one that has a good selection of possible tips (which hopefully don't cost a lot).
I personally use a Weller D1. I like it just fine but I haven't used many irons so I don't know how it compares to other ones.
I think it was recently decided here on the forums that Hakko FX-888 where good soldering irons.
http://www.homedepot.com/buy/plumbing/torches-soldering-irons/weller/40-watt-soldering-kit-41707.html it came with a bunch of tips. what im saying about tip size is the base that goes into the iron is kind of fat compared to most irons so i really dont know how to make sure the tips online are compatible.
anyway i found this http://www.eio.com/p-1865-velleman-vtss5u-low-cost-soldering-station-50w.aspx its better than the deal extreme iron. but my question is what is the advantage of.an adjustable iron if u know how to solder and it doesnt take.u 5 minutes to get an led in? is this set up a waste of money over what im using?