soldering/desoldering station proposition?

Finally I have decided to spend some money on buying a soldering / desoldering station for dip and SMD parts.

What should I look for? what features?

I have seen this **broken link removed**
Is this ok? the proce is good.
I am not sure about what features would someone need.
Thanks

Looks a decent price, as long as replacement tips/Irons are freely available, one thing I noticed was that they only ship to to the US/Canada so if you're in Greece you're out of luck.

From my own experience, I bought a very similar looking workstation which turned out to be a waste of money.
The soldering iron was of poor quality and falling apart, I never did use it.
I still do use the hot air gun occasionally. The heating element is very flimsy, (it looks like a hair dryer element) and if you turn the heat up to much, you can get sparks coming out of the end of the heat pipe! I only use the hot air gun as a last resort.

I think it is worth spending a little more to get good quality tools.
I use a OKI Metcal SP200 soldering iron station which I bought on E bay for a good price. The tips are a little expensive but it is an excellent soldering iron for SMD work.
Some of the newer Weller soldering iron stations are also very good.

Professional quality hot air rework stations are quite expensive, your looking at minimum £300 for a decent system.

I thought so, the price seems too low for such many features on this. I own a Weller EC2100M-ESP-FE bought used from ebay a decade ago, and I am very satisfied. It is of high quality and the tips last for years on a daily basis use. But it is only a soldering station.
One solution is to try to find one of these manual desoldering pumps that fits the station.
Anyway, could you propose a decent system at a good price? Even used.

I do keep a look out for a decent hot air system on E bay, but they don't seem to come up very often.
Swiss made Leister hot air tools are very good, but expensive.
OKI make some decent systems and Weller tools are good as well.

I bought a ATTEN858D+ a while ago and I am very happy with it.
I use it to de-solder smd components, I haven't used it to solder anything, I only solder using my weller iron.
It is not a professional grade tool but for $70 it's fine, at least for my needs, I only use it occasionally.



Alex

Yes, I have seen these units often come out on ebay. I considered once to buy one of these and see how it goes, then I decided to go for a more ruggedized station. I am still looking for it at a reasonable price...
I do not think that I will have a chance to find a good hot air station cheaply, even used. Maybe a solution could be one of these thermal tweezers, but only for two leaded components.

**broken link removed**

we bought one of these at work and have no complaints with it, it works well and feels robust.

Old Nick said:

**broken link removed**

we bought one of these at work and have no complaints with it, it works well and feels robust.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have seen these as well on ebay, sold for great prices for the features they offer. Very interesting cheap solution. Do you use it on a daily basis?

neazoi said:

Finally I have decided to spend some money on buying a soldering / desoldering station for dip and SMD parts.

What should I look for? what features?

I have seen this **broken link removed**
Is this ok? the proce is good.
I am not sure about what features would someone need.
Thanks

Click to expand...

You made good choice for station, and not expensive. Always we can spent all money what we have. :wink:

neazoi said:

Yes, I have seen these as well on ebay, sold for great prices for the features they offer. Very interesting cheap solution. Do you use it on a daily basis?

Click to expand...

Not on a daily basis, probably once a week on average. I go long periods without going near a soldering iron, and periods where I'm at the station every day for a week or so so it's difficult to say exactly. We've had it about a year now I'd say, and it still works as it did when it was new, although we're probably not what you'd consider heavy users.