My current soldering iron is from the 1990s and the irreplaceable tip is pretty destroyed after 25 odd years of use. I’d like to get into SMD but the tip is too chunky hence I’m looking for a new one. Does anyone have any tips or recommendations? no pun intended
Ideally it should:
Be reliable
Have easy to source and replace tips.
Be temperature adjustable
Not take ages to heat up
Have a wide temperature range
Not be too expensive (sub £150 if possible)
Not have a horrible stiff mains cable that makes the stand wiggle about when you insert the iron (worst tool ever)
(stretch) Not take up too much bench space
(stretch) Have some sort of hot air station built in?
A few options I’ve seen:
Hakko FX-888D - Looks good, a bit on the expensive side for me though. The tips are easily sourced. A good option if nothing else ticks the boxes.
TS-80 - Better price. I would prefer the station type iron, however I do like that you can use a USB power bank for soldering in the field. With a barrel jack, the thickness of the wire on the PSU makes a big difference.
TS-100 Similar, but no USB option. Wire issue crops up again.
Pinecil Same as the TS100/TS80, but half the price.
Weller 1010NA - Similar to the Hakko but cheaper. This one looks like my best option.
What do you folks use? I believe a few people have the Hakko, what’s your experience been like with it?
Many thanks
I’ve been using the T12 type soldering station which is available from China or even elsewhere for about a year now. Very happy with it! There’s a wide variety of tips available, it heats up super quickly, and the light iron and supple cable are comfortable to work with. Also doesn’t really break the bank.
I picked up this as part of an pack with clippers and solder when I got back into electronics during lockdown. Really happy with it so far. Just be careful with the specific model you link to, I think the NA suffix means North America, so it might be a 110V model. I’ve got this one but it’s a little bit over your max budget I think.
A fine tip is helpful for SMD - but I do most of mine with a hot air gun, which works out pretty good if you don’t go overboard with the paste…
I was about to say the Hakko is worth every cent/penny but that link was a lot more expensive than I remember paying (~100 euroish, iirc). Seems the official UK site has it for £125 + vat:
so I guess they’ve gotten more expensive since I got mine.
Comparing to the UK site, its way more pricy for some reason. (even the one thats apples to apples which has only the one tip, which you have to get from other sellers.)
I have similar succes with this device for about a year now. Until I got it I used a 16 W soldering iron made by Antex (UK) which has served me for more than 25 years and I can still buy replacement soldering tips. I still have it but the nice thing about the T12 is that it switches off automatically after you haven’t touched it for a while, which I like a lot.
Antex is a staple brand of hobby irons favoured by schools too. or it was until you could not even pick up a screwdriver in a school workshop… ( in my day we had a gas furnace, oxyact kit, lathes, band saws ( ok this one was restricted )…
Velleman vtss4n soldering station. It’s only 17 euros at my local electronics store.
It’s 48watts adjustable temperature. It takes the nice quality velleman tips, which i like a lot more than the chrome? plated ones you often find on cheap soldering irons. If you take care of the tip well it will last for ages.
I’m currently on my second as the triac gave up after like 10 years, still with the original tip in it.
I am using the ersa i-con pico. It is very small, has about 80W and takes about 15s to heat up to 350°C and has a very nice tip. Because of the high power you can solder big ground planes without a problem. I am using the 2.3mm tip for more than 4 years, and it looks still good. The price in Germany was about 150€. The best feature is the soft cable to the small iron.
Hi, I am using a Weller from 1985 for bigger things and for small things I bought this china-thing for 15€ two years ago.
Somethimes I switch both on and switch from one to another. So finally, my invest was 15€.
OK, there’s a lot of good recommendations here, thanks to each and every one of you that contributed, it’s been really helpful!
I found the T12 available on Amazon for £55. While it does look like just the ticket, if I can, I’d rather pay for something that I can trust will last.
It turns out that the Hakko FX-888D is discounted at the moment to £110. I’m gonna order it just now as it ticks all the boxes and seems like a great deal.
I do have a ‘hot air gun’ (paint stripper) that I tried to use for SMD a while back… It blew all the resistors onto the floor.
I’m looking forward to trying out SMD so that I can use non-through-hole packages for some projects I have in mind.
I can second this choice. I have the nano version, which is basically the same but was the one that was locally available at the time. It’s an excellent station and I’m very happy with it. Recently, I also got some tips for SMD soldering from the Ersa Shop. They have a good service, but I cannot say anything about the tips because I did not have the time for soldering recently.
