I am interested in stepping up and buying a desoldering station. One in particular is the Weller WRS1002X, which is digital controlled, 150-999 Degrees F with a self contained vacuum pump. Its an 80W iron, which is pretty good for melting solder from things soldered to a large heat sink, such as lead soldered to a terminal on a metal chassis. You can see these units online. The local electronics supply house here has them for much less than anyone online.
Im curious if any of you have one of these, doesnt have to be this particular model.
I am mainly interested in how well it removes large quantitys of solder, as would be encountered when working on point to point circuitry (such as zenith "solder cones" or a termial strip). Im sure it works great on PC boards, which is no concern.
I use a soldapullit (spring loaded manual solder remover) which works OK, but the "shock" created by the spring force makes you tend to loose fine contol or removing solder, mainly when working in tight spaces. Having a totally automatic self contained unit would be excellent if it works like I hope it will. I dont want to spend the big money untill I get somekind of feedback from you guys first.

Thanks

Plus you could save up the lead scraps and sell them.

My boss bought me a Hako 808 desoldering gun. It kinda looks like the old soldering guns in the 60's. It really works well and the only draw back is you need to clean the pipe that sucks the solder after every use.
Google it and you should be able to find it. IIRC it was around 2 to 3 hundred dollars. That tool saves me lots of time when working on game monitors.
Ed

:scratch2:I am also interested in seeing what comes up in the way of suggestions. I don't mind paying for quality within reason. :scratch2:Some of the units I have seen out there just seem to be ridiculously high priced.:smoke::smoke::smoke:

I have had a Pace Micro Bench Top 200 for about the last 20 years and it has been very dependable. I have replaced the heaters about 10 years ago when the one in the solder extractor failed. I also replaced the one in the pencil even though it was still working, kept the original for a spare. About 2 months ago the vacuum pump started to lose vacuum / pressure. When I examined the pump I found one of the carbon vanes broken. I called Pace and of course they do not support 20 year old products but would be happy to sell me the current model for $1,200. I thanked him and then put the pump back together with the broken vane and have been using it this way. I have considered trying to machine my own vanes but what a mess that would be!
To sum up I like the Pace a lot, but not the price.

This reply won't help Doug, since he's looking for something a lot more heavy-duty and high-end, but others here might find this useful. I agree about those spring-loaded desoldering tools like the "Soldapullit"-- I think they're tricky to use and usually make you feel like you need an extra hand to use them right. On the other hand, I've had pretty good luck with one of those cheap "desoldering irons" that I got at Rat Shack several years ago. It's basically a cheap soldering iron that has a hollow "nozzle" instead of a regular soldering tip, with the nozzle being coupled via a metal tube to a rubber bulb. The bulb is placed to make it easy to squeeze/release the bulb while holding onto the soldering iron handle, so you only need one hand to use it. The heating element is 45W, which gets it hot enough to work on point-to-point wiring, but perhaps not quite enough to handle big grounding straps efficiently or other more demanding jobs. Anyway, it's not fancy, but it's rather inexpensive and works a lot better (in my opinion) than a plain non-heated spring-loaded desoldering aid. I'm sure it's not in the same league as the desoldering stations that Doug is looking at, though..!

I am currently using the Radio Shack unit of which you speak. I think it cost me $10 and is good for repairs and such. I am just looking to upgrade to something a bit more versatile. I have a feeling that the RS model just won't cut it for doing full recaps and such.:smoke::smoke::smoke:

I've managed with a spring loaded solder sucker for years. Not too long ago, I bought an old Ungar desoldering station from a flea market. It's not bad, but it could use more heater power (the hollow tip provides poor heat transfer and the air suction cools things off). I think it's just variable power, not temperature controlled. It is good for big jobs, but not worth the trouble for small jobs. It's nice the way it sucks most of the solder out of wrapped connections on terminal strips. Unfortunately, because of its age, I think it will be hard to find tips and heaters for it. If you buy a new one, you might want to stock up in case parts are discontinued.

Here it is. I bought the weller WRS1002X yesterday. I went to fry's electronics in Downers Grove. The store is a total mess, very poorly organized parts department. They sometimes have what you need in stock. 90% of the time its out of stock, and if you're the last one to get what was on the shelf, it will never be stocked again.......

However, they had the cheapest price on this particular unit, so I bought from them. They had one on display and the guy working at the store let me try it out. All I could do was melt a blob off a roll of solder and see how good it could pick it back up. Needless to say, I was impressed. The vacuum is electrically activated by a button on the soldering iron. Picked up the molton solder instantly with no delay. Simply vanished in a few milliseconds.

Im always a manual reader, even if its an obvious simple tool before using. The thing is build rock solid, metal cabinet, very heavy. Extremely high quality insturment in every way. I turn it over to see where it was made and saw the "Made in Germany" sticker, so that explained alot. I didn't know these were German designed and built units. As I read the manual, there were many remarks relating to "this is an extremely high quality precision engineered instrument" etc. So they were confident that you could buy no better. Well, I would hope not as it was a very expensive peice. Ive been working on electronics for 15 years and in the past 10 years have I taken electronic repair work seriously, yet I never owned one of these. Ive gotten by with the soldapullit and it works OK, but I hate the mess they make of the ejected solder pieces all over the place. When Im in the middle of a repair, Im not always concerned about keeping the ejected solder in one area, it basically gets ejected into the bench or on the floor so I can move on and I pick it up later. Its nice to step up to such a nice peice of equipment that makes the most annoying part of the job so simple and keeps the shop perfectly clean of solder debris.

I have a 72 Motorola color TV that was in need of a recap on the deflection board. It uses those "euro" caps which always leak. This was my first use of the weller desoldering station. The solder sucked clean off each terminal to the point of the component actually falling out of the pc board. Its range is up to 999F, but about 695-715 is excellent for PC servicing. I have no doubt it will work excellent on point to point circuitry.

Yes its an expensive tool, but if you work on electronics often enough and want a clean looking repair, this is the way to go.

Now that Pace is no longer supporting my unit I may look into one of those. Once you use one it is very hard to go back to Soldapullit or copper braid. Are different size tips, curved, straight available for it?
Thank's
Richard.

Congratulations on a big step forward. About a year ago, I finally upgraded from soldering iron and solder-sucker/wick to a proper reworkng (soldering and desoldering) station. Mine is Chinese made, but still good, and I got it directly from the factory at the end of an exhibition, so it was a bargain. It is MUCH easier, faster, more convenient, less messy, etc... to use these than to do it the "old" manual way. It has basically transformed the way I work and how I feel about it. You get finer tips, accurate and stable temperature control, quick and effective desoldering with no mess... just much, much better. I'm sure you'll like using this better than using the other manual tools.

As for Weller quality, I have a large Weller soldering "gun" that I bought used on a flea market perhaps fifteen years ago. It was "old" then; judging from the case artwork, it must be at least thirty years old... and it still works! It is a heavy-duty thing; the tips have two massive inflexible leads coming off them, that insert into the gun and screw down securely. The different tips allow you to braze and cut some metals with it, too. If their current quality is as good as the quality of their older stuff, they have a right to brag about it. :yes: :thmbsp:

I have mixed feelings about Weller's quality, but the one great thing about them is that tips and parts are easy to find. Even their older products are easy to maintain.