Soldering Iron Recommendations

[Delberthot]

Is there anything recommended around the £50-70 mark?

 

I want to teach myself to solder - in all honesty I really don't want to spend £200 on something that I'm not going to use a great deal but at the same time I don't want to buy garbage. It would be purely for soldering bass electronics and nothing else and I like the idea of a soldering station with a temperature control but if someone could recommend a soldering iron which operates at the best temperature for this type of work then I'd be happy with that as well.

 

I've made the mistake over the years of buying rubbish and wondering why it was rubbish so want something good enough to make a decent job of soldering stuff.

[Sean]

17 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

Is there anything recommended around the £50-70 mark?

 

I want to teach myself to solder - in all honesty I really don't want to spend £200 on something that I'm not going to use a great deal but at the same time I don't want to buy garbage. It would be purely for soldering bass electronics and nothing else and I like the idea of a soldering station with a temperature control but if someone could recommend a soldering iron which operates at the best temperature for this type of work then I'd be happy with that as well.

 

I've made the mistake over the years of buying rubbish and wondering why it was rubbish so want something good enough to make a decent job of soldering stuff.

This is exactly where I was. 

I'd be interested to see if there's an answer. 

[Stub Mandrel]

£35.

 

https://www.antex.co.uk/store/p/m12-w9wdk-mg96e-y7lr5

 

Get one of these and a cheap stand off eBay.

 

Mine lasted about 40 years.

Edited 15 hours ago by Stub Mandrel

[prowla]

I have a Hakko; nice for precision PCB work, but it hasn't got the power to melt a blob of solder on a pot base.

[nilebodgers]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

I have a Hakko; nice for precision PCB work, but it hasn't got the power to melt a blob of solder on a pot base.

I have a fx888d (70W) - with a big enough tip it certainly can solder to pot cases without any trouble. As can my old 50W Weller TCP - again with a big tip.

[prowla]

1 hour ago, nilebodgers said:

I have a fx888d (70W) - with a big enough tip it certainly can solder to pot cases without any trouble. As can my old 50W Weller TCP - again with a big tip.

Hmmm - it's an FX-888D I have; maybe I'll give it another try.

I was trying to remove existing solder but it couldn't do it, so I just ended up adding more to it...

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, nilebodgers said:

I have a fx888d (70W) - with a big enough tip it certainly can solder to pot cases without any trouble. As can my old 50W Weller TCP - again with a big tip.

 

It was slow with the 15W antex, but doable with patience and a 4mm tip. I did it many times in the past.

[JohnH89]

Best purchase I have made in years .

https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/products/at980e-digital-soldering-station-80w-atten

 

[Crusoe]

I have a soldering iron that has been used once. One Christmas, my daughter got a toy tattoo gun as a present, but it didn't work. When I opened it up, I could see that one of the connections had broken, so I bought a £12 soldering iron from B&Q and fixed it. Never used it again. As I recall, the tattoo gun also only got used once. 😄

[nekomatic]

I’ve not used one myself but I might look at this one - the handle size might be a bit cumbersome for the tiniest jobs but it’ll have enough power to deal with pots and connectors even with lead-free (and I do think we should all be going lead-free nowadays). I’d get this tip with it. 

[itu]

The minimum should be like: 

- power around 50 W (enough for pots) 

- small tip for accuracy and small places 

- big tip for big areas like pots 

 

https://www.weller-tools.com/eu/gb/consumer/products/corded-soldering-irons/soldering-iron-60w230v-uk 

https://www.weller-tools.com/eu/gb/consumer/products/consumables/tip-conical-08-mm-wlir60 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

If I only had one iron, I'd paradoxically choose a smaller one, as you'll cause more grief overheating delicate electronic components than having to spend 30-40 seconds getting a pot case up to temperature.

YMMV.

[80Hz]

I used to have a Hakko FX-888D and it was a great unit. I can definitely recommend a Hakko if budget allows but beware that there's a lot of fakes around.

 

For the occasional soldering I do now I bought a Yihua 939D station and it's been good.

 

I'd recommend getting something with a decent amount of power - with a hot iron you can work quickly, and I think this gives less time for heat to dissipate into surrounding components.

[nekomatic]

Yeah, ‘too much power’ shouldn’t be a problem if the iron is temperature controlled. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I have a high power solder station with temperature control now, means I can use a 1mm bit or a point and work with smd or tackle larger stuff with ease. But it costs six times as much.