What's the best Soldering/Desoldering Station to buy?

[vortalexfan]

Hello, I'm just curious as to what you guys think would be the best Soldering/Desoldering station for the money?

I would like a reccomendation for one that would be a medium priced unit (not too expensive, but not too cheap though either), preferrably American Made.

Thanks for your help.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Hello, I'm just curious as to what you guys think would be the best Soldering/Desoldering station for the money?

I would like a reccomendation for one that would be a medium priced unit (not too expensive, but not too cheap though either), preferrably American Made.

Thanks for your help.

I heard a lot of good about Hakko and Weller. Don't know where they're built now, but be ready to part with a good sum of money. They never were cheap!

[kvflyer]

I have had two Weller WESD51 soldering stations. The first one lasted several years and then died. I bought another Weller WESD51 and that one lasted one year. Mind you, I am a hobbyist, not a commercial user. As much as I loved the Weller (and had all kinds of tips for it), I was not going to go for "Three Strikes And Your Out".

I bought a Hakko FX-888D and it has been flawless. Costs about $100. I like it very much. Then, I bought a Hakko FR-301 desoldering gun. It costs over twice the soldering station price, at around $260. But I am here to tell you that it really works. If you plan to work on old phenolic circuit boards, this gun will usually remove the solder without lifting the trace.

Hakko is made in Japan, not China, Not Taiwan etc.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

I have had two Weller WESD51 soldering stations. The first one lasted several years and then died. I bought another Weller WESD51 and that one lasted one year. Mind you, I am a hobbyist, not a commercial user. As much as I loved the Weller (and had all kinds of tips for it), I was not going to go for "Three Strikes And Your Out".

I bought a Hakko FX-888D and it has been flawless. Costs about $100. I like it very much. Then, I bought a Hakko FR-301 desoldering gun. It costs over twice the soldering station price, at around $260. But I am here to tell you that it really works. If you plan to work on old phenolic circuit boards, this gun will usually remove the solder without lifting the trace.

Hakko is made in Japan, not China, Not Taiwan etc.

I'm also a hobbyist, and also do repairs as a side business, and I used for years a Radio Shack 40 Watt Soldering Iron that I bought for $20 but that kicked the bucket a few years ago.
I Bought a Weller 20 Watt soldering iron from the local Ace hardware for $40 just recently and it works nicely for desoldering components from printed circuit boards (now that I've figured out how to do it correctly).

But I've wanted to get a Soldering station for tube radio work so that I can undo components that are soldered to the metal chassis of the radio easier.

And yes those brands were what I was thinking of because I was thinking of something made in either the U. S. or Japan.

Thanks for your help.

[user181]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Hello, I'm just curious as to what you guys think would be the best Soldering/Desoldering station for the money?

I would like a reccomendation for one that would be a medium priced unit (not too expensive, but not too cheap though either), preferrably American Made.

Thanks for your help.

This is a unit that is made in USA that should be more than adequate:


https://www.edsyn.com/product/ST/951SXe.html

[JohnCT]

I had been using Weller for almost 50 years, but stopped. They're expensive, the parts are expensive, and I was having a lot of failures with them.

I'm not a hobbyist, so I solder every day.

About four years ago, I had two Weller stations quit the same week and was left with only my Weller GT (which I love, but it's big). I took the cheap Chinese soldering iron out of my road kit and put that in service. A year later and it's still working properly. I ordered two more, one for the road kit and one for a back up. One of them finally quit after four years.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/60W-IRON-SO.../223905127489?

With the Weller stations, I had several thermostats/temp sensors fail and several heaters. Honestly, these POS's work as good as the Wellers do and the total cost with shipping is less than one service part for the Weller.

But one caveat: the last one I got came with tips that were tinned but had no plating. They literally lasted a day. I just ordered another one and I'll see how the tips on that one lasts. Hopefully it was just a bad batch, but I still have a bunch of tips from the earlier orders that I haven't used yet.

John

[madlabs]

I have had a Weller WES51 for years and it works quite well for me. I have heard many complain about these breaking but I have been lucky with mine. It has many hours on it and still works fine.

For desoldering I have a Hakko 880. That thing slurps up solder by the quart. You do need to clean it but overall it is trouble free and works really well.