Hi Kirby:
As Ron said in a previous posting, both Weller and Hakko (and probably
several others) are all very good, so it's a matter of which you find to be
more to your liking.
...
Here's a 'boilerplate' response I prepared a while back for those who'd
write to me inquiring about soldering stations and/or DEsoldering devices.
I hope you find it helpful
73, Tom N0SS
...
In response to your recent query regarding a temperature-
controlled soldering station OR possibly a DE-soldering tool,
please allow me to reply with the following 'boiler-plate'
text. Trying to retype the same info over and over again has
become a bit tedious. Sorry.
TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED SOLDERING STATION
For a temperature-controlled soldering station, I can
recommend the following from:
http://kiesub.com.hakko936.htm
or
http://www.tequipment.net/Hakko936.html
Hakko 936-12 with/907 iron
Includes ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection
936-9 with/907 iron
Grounded tip, but NOT specifically ESD protected.
Tip is grounded however.
If you want to know the difference between ESD-safe and not ESD-safe,
here's what the Hakko web site says about the two.
I own a Hakko 936-9 which is non-ESD. What specifically is the
difference between the two and what can I do to the Hakko 936-9
to make it ESD safe. How important is it?
QUESTION: What is the difference between ESD and Non-ESD?
ANSWER: ESD means, electrostatic discharge. An ESD-safe unit
will not create or sustain an electrostatic discharge that
could damage components on or in the work being performed.
ESD-safe equipment does not hold electrostatic charge but
dissipates it, therefore it is safe to use on applications
that are sensitive to static electricity
Note that I recently had the opportunity to disassemble both the
Hakko 936-9 AND the Hakko 936-12 soldering stations, in an effort
to determine what they did differently to make one "ESD Safe". Try
as I might, I could NOT find ANY differences between the two
devices... none... nil! Since my 936-9 station is about 5 years old,
the design of the internal power transformer was slightly different
from that used in the newer 936-12 (ESD-Safe) model. But this was
the ONLY difference I could find. Possibly the ESD protection IS
actually being hidden within the windings of the transformer...
that's about the only place it could be hidden as far as I'm
concerned... <G>
Both the Hakko 936-9 and the 936-12 come with the 907 iron
attached, and include the 1.6mm chisel tip.
I'd suggest you consider investing in several additional tips
as well, to match whatever width PC board pad you are working
on. I try to use a tip that's about 85%-90% the width of the
pad... helps to prevent solder shorts between adjacent pads.
HAKKO Catalogs
General Products (c. 2.4Mb)
http://www.hakkousa.com/Press/Catalog/index.htm
Download the HAKKO Tips & Nozzles catalog (TC2000-4 catalog,
1.3mB) from:
http://www.hakkousa.com/Products/Tips-Nozzles/index.htm
If you have the HAKKO 936-12 (ESD) or the -09 (non-ESD), the
tips you're probably looking for are the 900M & 900L series.
The "L" series is generally a longer tip.
900M-T-LB Long, round, .008" tip, really skinny,
helpful when cleaning out PCB holes
All of the following tips are of the chisel (screwdriver) tip
type:
900M-T-1.2D .047" (1.2mm) tip --
| For PCB work. The HAKKO 936-12
900M-T-1.6D .063" (1.6mm) tip |-- and -9 models ship with the
| 900M-T-1.6D tip included.
900M-T-2.4D .095" (2.4mm) tip --
900M-T-3.2D .126" (3.2mm) tip - For non-PCB work
900M-T-S3 .203" (5.2mm) tip - For heavy-duty work,
including Coax Conns.
900L-T-S1 .221" (5.6mm) tip - For heavy-duty work,
especially coax conns.
Most, if not all of these tips are (I believe) available
from:
http://www.kiesub.com.hakkotips.htm
and
http://www.tequipment.net/HakkoPriceList4.html
I'm sure they're available from a number of other vendors as
well, but the prices at these sites are generally better
than I've found elsewhere.
____________________
DE-SOLDERING GUN
If you're interested in the Hakko model 808 DE-Soldering Gun,
check out:
http://www.kiesub.com/hakko808.htm
or
http://www.tequipment.net/Hakko808.html, and
http://www.tequipment.net/HakkoPriceList4.html
Consider also ordering a couple additional nozzles:
A1394 This is a long (0.434"), slender (0.090") nozzle which will
allow you to get into places the fatter tips won't. It is
particularly handy when you are working on PC boards which
are pretty tightly packed AND which have some of their
components mounted on the bottom of the PC board with the
soldered pads in and among the tightly packed components on
the top side. Because it is long and slender, this is a
'delicate' nozzle, and probably NOT one you would want to
leave on the desoldering tool when you do not need to use
it.
A1396 This is a short/fat nozzle, similar to the nozzle provided
with the Hakko 808 when it is originally purchased.
However, this nozzle has a 0.091" inside diameter, so it
will suffice for removing most, if not all, of the
connectors used on most PC boards. Some of these connectors
use flat lug-type leads, instead of wire leads, which can
be particularly difficult to remove if you find you must
remove the connector itself. Of course, it also works well
on the larger diameter leads of big diodes, etc.
Contact these vendors directly for availability of these
additional nozzles.
Of course, standard disclaimers apply. I have NO interest in ANY
of the companies referenced above.
73,
Tom
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
