I am fortunate enough to have, either at work or at home, at least one each of the several top-grade soldering stations.... Pace, Metcal, Hakko, Edsyn, Weller ... and several versions of each of these manufacturers' product lines as well, in some cases.
As you'd expect, for professional use, the Pace and the Metcal are the most costly - and the "best" at what they do. In general, some of these stations cost far more than a completely loaded K2, putting them out of consideration for someone doing hobby work! And, for hobby work, the reality is that almost any decent, temperature-controlled iron will do nicely. Your K2 (or any Elecraft kit) is REALLY engineered to be straightforward to do, and doesn't take much in the way of specialized tools. It *IS* much easier with a good iron, to be certain, and such can be had for $40-$125 new, depending on how fancy you want to get, or a fraction of that cost used. Definition of a 'good iron' is one that isn't a $10 non-temp-controlled pencil, and which also has a tip suitable for use on common DIP parts, and which is used with a suitable way of keeping the tip clean and tinned. To answer the next question ... what do I use myself, since I do this for a living? Well, at home, I have two WTCP- series Wellers, plus a Metcal 500 dual-output unit, with an RM3 iron using 700 degree tips, and Talon/TATC tweezers, and a Hakko 808. At work, my personal bench hols a pair of Weller stations, one WSL2 and a WSL, supporting two irons on the WSL2 and hot tweezers on the WSL, and another Hakko 808. The manufacturing shop uses top-line Pace gear, mostly, and some trusty old Edsyns too, which don't get the applause they deserve. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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
