[Coco] Soldering Irons/Stations

[Rick Ulland]

For light (3-4 hours a week) desoldering use, I have been using a 
Chinese? 'Anesty ZD915' desolder station which is about $130-$150 on 
e-mazon. A little fiddly to clean, but the pump is in a box on desk 
where it belongs, the gun is small and easy to live with.  A job as big 
as a mobo recap is an excellent excuse to splurge on a power tool, this 
is one to look at for the price.

Still rockin an old R/S solder station as my 'big iron'. It has few 
skills, but does hold a set temperature. The first connection is about 
the same as the 15th. After a while you've got an internal timing, not 
only can you run down a chip in seconds (remember, every other pin) but 
you'll just know when a board is harder to melt than usual  and needs 
more heat.

Speaking of harder to melt... I am noticing it really helps to add a 
little 60/40 solder to every connection before desoldering. I don't 
remember that being such a big deal working on CoCos 20 years ago, but 
it sure helps now!

-ricku
CoNect


On 7/1/20 10:42 AM, Salvador Garcia via Coco wrote:
>   I've been looking into desoldering tools and am partial to the desoldering gun similar to the one mentioned in this video (although it is quite noisy!):
>
> https://youtu.be/Z38WsZFmq8E
>
>
> I have the suction cylinder (second item mentioned in the video), but its latch is not at 100% and it sometime does not want to stay in its prepped position. Very tiring on the thumb :-).
>
> I also have soldering wick, but from watching the video I see that I am not using it in the most effective way. I may have to do a re-cap on a motherboard, so I suspect that I'll get some practice ;-).
>
> I am also watching for a soldering station and am reading this thread carefully. I get confused as to what temperatures to use for which tasks. Thanks! Salvador
>
>
>
>
>      On Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 06:20:16 PM CDT, John E. Malmberg <wb8tyw at qsl.net> wrote:
>   
>   Nathan Byrd has recommended: Hakko FX-888D
> Roy Justus has recommended: Xytronix iron from Jameco
>
> I was looking possibly:
>
> Weller-WLC100-40-Watt-Soldering-Station
>
> No temp gauge, and not sure what setting to use on on the control.
>
> Was highly rated on a review site.  And replacement iron plated tips
> seem to be readily available.
>
> Also recommended by that site was:
>
> Weller WE1010NA Digital Soldering Station
>
> Again, not sure what temperature to use when, so not sure how useful the
> that is.  Notice that it seems to take different tips than the other one.
>
> Looks pretty comparable to the Hakko FX-888D but a bit more expensive.
>
> So how do I know what temperature to set?
>
> Or on the first case, what dial setting to use?
>
> Looks like more stuff to lookup.
>
>
> For de-soldering one article recommended getting a couple of
> "soldapullt" which appears to have several cheap clones for under $10.
>
> One for primary use, and the other for backup when after a period of
> time it finally loses its suction.
>
> Looks like a newer version of what I got from Radio Shack way back when.
>
> Unfortunately it turns out the hobby budget is going to be tight this
> month.
>
> Regards,
> -John
>
>