Members boytbpc Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 The Stahl soldering station sold by BYOC is great for the price. imo. http://www.amazon.com/Stahl-Tools-Variable-Temperature-Soldering/dp/B0029N70WM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 The Stahl soldering station sold by BYOC is great for the price. imo. http://www.amazon.com/Stahl-Tools-Variable-Temperature-Soldering/dp/B0029N70WM I've never seen one first-hand, but it seems to bear a strong resemblance to the Weller WLC100, and it's significantly less money - $25 vs $40. Does it use Weller tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boytbpc Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 I've never seen one first-hand, but it seems to bear a strong resemblance to the Weller WLC100, and it's significantly less money - $25 vs $40. Does it use Weller tips? Don't know, never tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members imbuedblue Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 This is what I use:That CSI Station that Aaron SS linked to is pretty good. I bought one of those for my brother a while back. I think he had to change the heating element once, but otherwise it's worked great for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members amp_surgeon Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 Didn't realize there was ammonia in that stuff. Good to know. And I probably should have been more specific about it. Or re-worded it a bit.... For awhile there, I had an off brand iron (Some POS from walmart I think) and could not find tips. So a bought some solid copper wire (12 - 14 gauge I think) made my own tips. They never lasted very long but that stuff helped increase their life a little bit. I don't really use it all that often, mainly when the sponge or anything else I would use to clean the tip would not clean it enough to allow solder to stick to it. My normal practice is to clean the tip on the sponge, then tap it on the tray on the iron base to make sure there isn't any dross still on it. I ran a few wave solder machines back in the early - mid 80's. One place used the water soluble flux, and I used another machine that was about the size of 3 normal washing machines, with a conveyor that I would put the boards on. I had some of the coolest "toys" in the plant in my room. Although the wave solder machine looked like it was made in the 60's, it was very finicky, but it did a damn good job once you set it up properly. Don't remember the name but it was green with a tan hood . I miss those days. When I worked at JPL, we got a bunch of chips (SMD) that had leads that were really messed up. Dirty, Oxidation. Un-solder-able. These were $1,600 chips so we could't just toss them and get new ones. They were used in the Galileo probe that went to Jupiter. We used water soluble flux before tinning and that worked very well. Normal flux didn't do {censored}. They told me they were $1,600 chips after I dropped one on the floor. Leads got all bent and was unusable. They didn't even bat an eye. They just said "Send it to engineering and let them play with it". I miss those days too. Ok...sorry..I'm done re-living the past...for now The big players in the wave soldering machine market back then were Hollis Engineering and Electrovert. The older Hollis machine were dark green. The newer ones were tan. If you had to float peanut oil on top of the molten solder and tweak a knob that adjusted the mixture of oil in the wave then it was a Hollis machine.Those Hollis machines had a foam fluxer at the beginning of the conveyor. You poured a mixture of alcohol and flux into it. A long cylinder air stone, like the one used in fish aquariums, pumped tiny bubbles into the flux causing it to foam up into a wide chimney. The circuit boards skimmed the flux foam as they entered the machine, coating the underside with flux. This was followed by two heater zones designed to drive the alcohol out of the flux and dry it, and also to preheat the board. After that, the board moved across the solder wave.I was the maintenance tech in an electronics manufacturing facility for a few years back in the early 80's. Among other things, I had to fix those wave soldering machines. Part of the routine maintenance involved removing the sump and pump and cleaning them. The solder had to be molten in order to lift the sump out of it. An asbestos apron, asbestos gloves, and welding type mask were required. That wasn't enough to make me feel safe. That damn sump weighed 100 lbs., solid iron covered with porcelain. It took two people to lift it out, and the only thing you could use to grab it was four pairs of vice grips. Every time we did it I had horrible premonitions about raising the sump over the solder pot, one of the vice grips lets go, and that sump falling back down into the pot and splashing molten solder everywhere. I still cringe when I think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members coloringpad Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 Threads like this are why this forum is awesome. Thank you everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoboPimp Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 this one is great for the $$$ buy extra tips, they are great too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SonicVI Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 This is what I use: That CSI Station that Aaron SS linked to is pretty good. I bought one of those for my brother a while back. I think he had to change the heating element once, but otherwise it's worked great for him. I have one of these too, cost $70 at Fry's. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cliff Fiscal Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 Bookmarked! ditto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Senor Limpio Posted April 2, 2012 Members Share Posted April 2, 2012 I got this one,best solder iron I have ever used highly recommended!! http://www.guitarfetish.com/Xytronic-Nichrome-Pro-Solder-Station-Worlds-Best-Guitar-Soldering-Iron_p_1020.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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