Need recommendations for a soldering/desoldering station!

That's right folks! My soldering iron just completely stopped heating, so now I'll be trying to kill two birds with one stone by buying a station.

I'd like to be able to desolder connectors from pcbs without a hassle.

Thanks in advance!

Hrmm... I have no idea of your experience in electronics so it's kinda hard to know what to recommend as it can be a really pricey exercise.

Companies like Micron make a good standard of Soldering Station and Desoldering units too, and keep their prices fairly realistic for the hobbyist in a lot of cases. The more professional models start to get expensive though.

http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=T2438
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=T1260
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=T2442
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=T1260S

But if you don't mind throwing down a big chunk of cash then Weller is the way to go...period!!! I just jumped aboard the Weller train and bought a WSD 81 Digital Soldering Station and it's just fantastic, though the price tag was kinda nasty...AUD$400 (USD$300'ish)

http://www.cooperhandtools.com/europe/electronics_products/weller/soldering/WSD81.htm

I've got a separate Micron Sure Shot De-solder Gun which was around AUD$300 and does a beautiful job also.

http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=T1280

This can get expensive as ya can see Weller (and others I'm sure) make combination re-work stations that do both, but they are really expensive!!

http://www.cooperhandtools.com/europe/electronics_products/weller/desoldering/WMD3.htm

When it comes down to it, if you're gonna use it a lot, ya might as well buy something decent

Have fun

if you have the money get pace station its one of the best solder, flat pack, and desolder station your ever use.


i used them all the time when i was in the us navy and i sure miss the quality


http://www.jensentools.com/product/group.asp?parent_id=67305

example of one of the many models

I'm always building stuff, or wanting to... without a desoldering gun I'm having a hard time.

werejag, those are a little out of my price range.

John_Smith, I guess you were the one who posted about that desoldering gun a while back, that's the one I was thinking about getting. How do you think it would work desoldering a cartridge connector? It's like 50 pins pretty close together...

gamejunkie said:

I'm always building stuff, or wanting to... without a desoldering gun I'm having a hard time.

werejag, those are a little out of my price range.

John_Smith, I guess you were the one who posted about that desoldering gun a while back, that's the one I was thinking about getting. How do you think it would work desoldering a cartridge connector? It's like 50 pins pretty close together...

Click to expand...

Well as far as larger pin numbers go, I've desoldered a bunch of EPROMS (28 to 40 pin chips) and even the odd Z80B processor, so I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be fine to remove a cart connector. It comes with 2 different sized nozzles too which is helpfull for a range of different sized component pins, though the 1mm tip is the one you'd generally use for finer work. What is the cart connector from?

John_Smith said:

Well as far as larger pin numbers go, I've desoldered a bunch of EPROMS (28 to 40 pin chips) and even the odd Z80B processor, so I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be fine to remove a cart connector. It comes with 2 different sized nozzles too which is helpfull for a range of different sized component pins, though the 1mm tip is the one you'd generally use for finer work. What is the cart connector from?

Click to expand...

It's the connector on a Gamecube GBA Player. I'm too poor to buy the real Panasonic Q GBA Player so I'm going to rig one.

Plus you know other stuff too...

Having different sized tips sounds nice! I guess it has a built-in pump thing, so I don't have to pull back a suction rod.

I just found that it uses an Australian power connector which won't work for me... Do you know if they make a version for the US wall plug?

Edit: Oh yeah, do you know of any that will plug into an air compressor?

gamejunkie

ah come on man buy the pace station so i can barrow it for a few....................




years

gamejunkie said:

It's the connector on a Gamecube GBA Player. I'm too poor to buy the real Panasonic Q GBA Player so I'm going to rig one.

Plus you know other stuff too...

Having different sized tips sounds nice! I guess it has a built-in pump thing, so I don't have to pull back a suction rod.

I just found that it uses an Australian power connector which won't work for me... Do you know if they make a version for the US wall plug?

Edit: Oh yeah, do you know of any that will plug into an air compressor?

Click to expand...

Hrmm well that is a good point, I can't find anything that mentions a model to suit 100/110v AC sadly. Seems really strange as I'm sure they're made somewhere in South East Asia, I could be wrong though

Dunno about the hooking it up to a compressor though, it would have to be a vacuum pump rather than compressor and it would need a collector/filter to catch the removed solder too. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some other brand options that aren't priced through the roof as I'm stumped man

Good luck with the search

John_Smith said:

Dunno about the hooking it up to a compressor though, it would have to be a vacuum pump rather than compressor and it would need a collector/filter to catch the removed solder too. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some other brand options that aren't priced through the roof as I'm stumped man

Click to expand...

Yeah, I realized that after posting, I'm retarded.

I'm going to do a little searching tonight.

The Pace MBT-250 kicks ass... I've had mine for about 7 years now and I bought it used from the place I used to work for. They even paid to send me to training to learn how to use it and after I left it sat on the shelf.

It'll do QFP, SOIC, TSOP, SSOP, and others... I can do everything except for BGA chips and that's only because I don't have the attachment for it yet. You can do hot air or hot iron techniques to lay down the chips.

The desoldering iron part is also very quick and will easily desolder the various components on an MVS system.

You can buy 'em used off of eBay and occasionally I'll see one down at the Dallas Sidewalk Sale (www.sidewalksale.com)

RJ