Soldering Station

[PolkMaster1]

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding Soldering Stations? I am looking for something that is 5-80 watts and has a good assortment of interchangable tips featuring chisel, fine tips and standard tips, etc.

Can I use tips made from other manufaucturers for a soldering station, or does the tip have to be made specific for that soldering station?

And can a stained glass soldering station be used for regular soldering that we would do here?

The purpose of it is to use the soldering station for soldering electronics with lead free solder. I am not into soldering stained glass.

Would anyone use anything from Parts Express or would anyone recommend something more, say from Jameco?

[nooshinjohn]

Weller WES-51.

I could not do my monoblock project without it.

[pepster]

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/show...solder+station
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/show...solder+station
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/show...solder+station

[TNRabbit]

How much do you want to spend? Circuit Specialists has a ceramic one that is nice & dirt cheap-- http://www.web-tronics.com/solstatwitce.html

Solomon unit; worked great when I changed out the crossovers in my AL-IIIs and I also used it to fix some bad solder joints on the optical output for my SD/A-360 CDP. You can't beat the price!

Spare tips are reasonable, too; I ordered 3 different sizes.

Ordering details FYI for anyone looking to get one:

Name Code Qty Each
--------------------------------------------------------------
Soldering Station with SR-976N 1 41.95
Ceramic Heater (SR-976N)
Extra Tip - 0.3mm 976T-SB 1 4.95
Extra Tip - 1.0mm 976T-BC 1 4.95
Extra Tip - 4.0mm 976T-4C 1 4.95

Subtotal 56.80
Shipping 9.40
Tax 0.00
Total 66.20

[PolkMaster1]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am looking to spend $100 or less for a good soldering station. I hear only good things with Weller.

What is the difference between an iron heated element vs. a ceramic element?

[ben62670]

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=374-100

[TNRabbit]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am looking to spend $100 or less for a good soldering station. I hear only good things with Weller.

What is the difference between an iron heated element vs. a ceramic element?

The advantages of a ceramic heating element include a fast initial heat-up and heat recovery, steady temperature, and up to 60% more energy efficiency than conventional irons.

[PolkMaster1]

Questions keep popping up as I am learning about soldering stations. If a soldering station is rated for lead free solder, can it also be used for leaded solder?

Is the only difference between a lead free soldering station vs. a non-lead-free soldering station is the temperature?

Thanks for all your help!!!

[pepster]

I would try the one Ben recommended (when you go to checkout it may be cheaper than listed price) along with the extra tips and see how you like it first.
If not, then you should look at others, but for $15 (with extra tips) + shipping, you really don't have much to loose, and your search may be over.
Just a thought.

[TNRabbit]

You can google all these questions~

[On3s&Z3r0s]

This may seem pretty junior high school, but I picked up this kit since my soldering skills are limited:

http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-AmeriKi...ef=pd_sim_hi_1

I have to say I found it amazingly worthwhile. The printed material has a lot of good tips about how to care for soldering irons and the different sorts of soldering tools available besides the station / iron. For instance, it comes with lead free solder and covers that the melting point is about 40 degrees hotter than lead bearing solder and that lead free is harder on the tips so it gives suggestions for accounting for that.

I plan on picking up the Stahl iron that Ben recommends when they're back in stock at PE and the set of tips they sell for it. But this Elenco kit also comes with an iron that is surprisingly not complete crap. I'm not sure how long it would last or if I'd want to do serious work with it, but it definitely worked nicely for the soldering in the kit project.

On thing I would say though is that the lead free solder it comes with is definitely not as nice to work with as even a decent Kester solder, so if you're doing this for practice as I was you might want to get yourself the solder you'll be using for whatever electronics project you've got teed up and get familiar with working with it instead. I'm sure you could say the same for the pencil, but again the timing on that didn't work out for me.

[PolkMaster1]

Based on NooshinJohn and I believe ToolForLife has one, I went with the Weller WES-51 Soldering Station. Yeah, I had to shell out $150 (got an assortment of tips), but I plan for this to be my first and last soldering station, and hopefully, it will replace all those pen solder guns that I have which have served me well.

Besides, how can you turn down NooshinJohns recommendation when he purchased some tweeters from me last year???

[ben62670]

For $150 you could have bought 10 of the soldering stations that partsexpress has.

[jbooker82]

Could have gotten the LRP solder station for $240
http://www.lrp.cc/en/products/blue-f...ation/details/

[Hobbyguy]

My last soldering station

[Scottinwa]

I have a hakko and it's everything I need.

[dracoskeeper]

+10 on the Hakko's... been using them for years, the ceramic tip pre heats in 12 seconds! Picked up a back up FP-102 off of the bay for 70$...

[dorokusai]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ARU9PO/..._df_B000ARU9PO

I'm a Weller fan and have never been disappointed. Yes, they usually cost a bit more but that's my choice over the others. As far as efficiency, not worried as its only a soldering iron not a solar panel. The ceramic elements do have a faster heat-up but I've never been in a hurry to solder something important and the rest is just stuff that an enthusiast doesn't need to worry about . If you start an assembly line, you should dive deeper into the spec's of a soldering iron.

It's just about price, reliability and temperature, period.

[slider2828]

+1 for Hakko too! I have been using them for the last 15 years.... Every since Playstation 1 and my modding days.....