Desoldering tool recommendations

I don't know if I'd call it "cheap". It's pretty well constructed and I've yet to have anything
fail. We currently have 4 in use in the shop and the only issue we had was one
tech cranked the heat up to maximum and melted the gun.

I bought 2 more and have them stored for spares, expansion whatever because they
go out of stock from time to time and don't show up again for months.

And my favorite thing is they use Hakko 808 tips !

JD

Since I started working on boards I found I *had* to have a desoldering station to remove chips, sockets, etc. You can do it with a hand tool but it is very time consuming. I'm pretty poor, so I looked around for a cheap but decent one and found the ZD-985.
http://a.co/2ld1D4z
I saw a review and for the money it seemed like it would do the job so I took a chance. I got it a few weeks back and I am TOTALLY happy with it. Yes, it's a cheap "China" unit, but it works fantastic. I bought this one for $149 on Amazon but I see it is up to $159 now.
Anyway, if you want to go a bit cheaper but still get a good unit, I recommend this one.
-Commander Dave
 
I don't know if I'd call it "cheap". It's pretty well constructed and I've yet to have anything
fail. We currently have 4 in use in the shop and the only issue we had was one
tech cranked the heat up to maximum and melted the gun.

I bought 2 more and have them stored for spares, expansion whatever because they
go out of stock from time to time and don't show up again for months.

And my favorite thing is they use Hakko 808 tips !

JD

I can't argue with you on that one. I love mine and would recommend it to anyone.

I originally saw it on EEVBlog #542 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ and the tear down was interesting. As he put it "it is really engineered down to a price". So "Cheap China Unit" was too harsh, but of course it's not going to be as solid as a Hakko at double the price.

Having said that, it desolders like a dream. I would definitely buy it again without hesitation. -Dave
 
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So I have one of these on my list to Santa. I certainly trust the opinions here more than those of the commenters on Amazon, but there seem to be a lot of comments about the FR-300 failing quickly? Is this a lot of "user error" or is it something to be concerned about (or at least not be surprised if it does fail)?

I'm currently using one of these, so looking for an improvement.

That was my last one. Burns through tips pretty fast. Tips cost 50% of what the whole iron is.

A couple months back I bought a hakko fr300.

The difference between the fr300 and that iron with sucker is shockingly ridiculous.
I pulled out all the caps on a chassis faster than I would have done 2 or 3 with that iron. And they were physically falling out as opposed to taking some fiddling.
 
A Hakko rep was in our building a couple years ago when
the FR-300 first came out. He was showing all the improvements
with the new model. The suction was one of the best points because
lead free solder tends to clog the old units quickly. He said lead
free desoldering is a breeze with the new unit.

The Fr-300 is on my wish list, but not until my trust 808 gives out.

My only gripe is the tips cost twice as much although I do like the
new twist lock feature.

JD


That was my last one. Burns through tips pretty fast. Tips cost 50% of what the whole iron is.

A couple months back I bought a hakko fr300.

The difference between the fr300 and that iron with sucker is shockingly ridiculous.
I pulled out all the caps on a chassis faster than I would have done 2 or 3 with that iron. And they were physically falling out as opposed to taking some fiddling.
 
The Fr-300 is on my wish list, but not until my trust 808 gives out.

JD


Haha, that might take a while, as the 808 is pretty well made, and parts are easily available.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has used both the 808 and FR-300. I love my 808, and it's near perfect IMO for my purposes, but I'm really curious to know if/what was actually improved on it. Has anyone here owned both?

You could probably sell your 808 for a pretty penny toward the FR-300, if you really wanted to. You almost never see 808's for sale, as nobody wants to get rid of them.
 
Where is a good place to get replacement parts/supplies for the 808? I love mine but need a couple of things for it.
 
Where is a good place to get replacement parts/supplies for the 808? I love mine but need a couple of things for it.


Which parts? For small stuff like tips, I've used ebay. Not sure if they're counterfeits, but if so, they were very good, came in Hakko packaging, and worked fine, but were a lot less than other places.

I needed to get a new heater once (as I accidentally snapped a drill bit in the barrel while trying to clean it, which FYI you should always do hot, not cold). I found Test Equipment Depot had the cheapest price on them ($45+sh), and they're close to me, so I got quick shipping. They have other parts for them as well. Here:

http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/TED_search2.html?ie=UTF-8&siteurl=/&q=hakko+808&x=0&y=0
 
Where is a good place to get replacement parts/supplies for the 808? I love mine but need a couple of things for it.

Ebay for me. I dropped it on a ceramic tile floor once and broke the gun housing
in half.

JD
 
You could probably sell your 808 for a pretty penny toward the FR-300, if you really wanted to. You almost never see 808's for sale, as nobody wants to get rid of them.

Not really.
I watched used 808's and fr300's on ebay for a couple months before pulling the trigger.
The 808 range was $75 to $125, and I think the $125 was because the same 2 guys wanted the first one, then the second guy had nobody bid against him on the second one.
I would have bid on the second one, but I got busy and forgot.

Fr300's in like new but open condition sell for about $215.
Used condition but working like $175.
 
Buying a brand new Hakko FR-300 is the only way to go as a hobbyist. ($200-300 range).

If you are pro and repair pcb's for a living or income, then drop $500-1000 on a real
professional desoldering solution, they're out there.

Professionals don't necessarily use expensive desoldering tools. When I worked in a PCB factory, nearly everyone used an Edsyn Soldapullt DS017, which sells for about $20. Sometimes we had to desolder all of the through-hole terminal blocks from a whole board, consisting of 200 solder joints. Metcal desolder guns (MX-DS1 guns connected to MX-500 stations and shop air; a setup that will run you about $800, which doesn't include an air compressor) were available, but few people bothered with them (from what I heard, they were mostly used by a few old ladies on first shift).

When people have trouble getting good results with manual "solder suckers", it's usually due to one or more of the following things:

1. Poor technique
2. Poor quality solder sucker (the original fullsize Edsyn Soldapullts are the only ones I know of that are worth a damn)
3. Iron not up to the task, which could be due to various reasons, e.g., under-powered, wrong or dirty tip, etc.
 
To echo what MaximRecoil said, the Edsyn Soldapullts are the best manual suckers. I've owned them, as well as the $3 chinese ebay-special suckers, and while the $3 ones do work, they just aren't built as well or feel as nice as the Soldapullts.

One of the other things to consider with a manual sucker is large vs small. This matters if you want to do a lot of rework, as being able to purge and re-cock it with one hand can be very convenient. I actually have an old Edsyn version of the smaller cheap Chinese one-handed ones, and it's great, but I don't know if they still make them. Again, the Chinese ones will work, but they just feel cheap, and will not last as long (but then again, they are like 1/10 the price, so you could just buy more of them, lol).

The larger suckers give you a bigger pull, but IMO if you are skilled with it, you don't need that much vacuum, and I'd prefer to have the one-handed operation over the larger chamber. However when you're a noob, the bigger one will probably be much easier to use.

However, what a Hakko FR-300 gets you is time. It just works faster. This matters if you're doing repairs professionally, where time = money. But for a home hobbyist, there really isn't anything you can do with a FR-300, that you can't also do with a Soldapullt. It will just take longer to do it manually. But for $20-30, you can't get a better quality sucker than a real Soldapullt.
 
However, what a Hakko FR-300 gets you is time. It just works faster. This matters if you're doing repairs professionally, where time = money.

You've probably never seen a factory worker use one. When you're handed a board that some new-hire soldered all of the terminal blocks in backwards (50, 4-position terminal blocks = 200 solder joints), and you have to remove them all, and still keep up with your normal job of soldering, inspecting, and testing 20 of those boards a night, if the desoldering stations had been faster than a Soldapullt, we would have been required to use them.

I normally press the charging handle against the palm of my hand that's holding the iron (which doesn't require me to alter my grip on the iron or the Soldapullt; I only need to rotate my wrist and push), but you can also press it against the table or your leg or whatever, though that tends to be slower.

A few people I worked with chose to use a compact Soldapullt like this one - http://www.edsyn.com/product/US140.html - which they kept in the pocket of their smock, but I didn't like those at all. It was quicker for me to jam the handle of a full-size one against the palm of my hand than to manipulate that little tab with my thumb, plus they clogged up quicker and couldn't handle as big of a solder joint.
 
I would love to see someone try to work faster with a Soldapullt than with a desolder station or a Hakko Fr300.

John Henry ................... Man versus machine :D
 
I would love to see someone try to work faster with a Soldapullt than with a desolder station or a Hakko Fr300.

John Henry ................... Man versus machine :D

Not necessarily faster, but rather, as fast. Plus, both types of tools sometimes need to be unclogged, and it's a lot faster to unclog a Soldapullt than it is to unclog any type of desoldering gun.

Have you ever worked on an assembly line in a factory? Extreme levels of repetition and pressure to not hold up the line tend to make people do things faster than you might imagine they can be done.
 
Not necessarily faster, but rather, as fast. Plus, both types of tools sometimes need to be unclogged, and it's a lot faster to unclog a Soldapullt than it is to unclog any type of desoldering gun.

Have you ever worked on an assembly line in a factory? Extreme levels of repetition and pressure to not hold up the line tend to make people do things faster than you might imagine they can be done.

Oh I'm not planning on getting into this discussion with you.

You did this 8 years ago. ;)

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=133251
 
Not necessarily faster, but rather, as fast. Plus, both types of tools sometimes need to be unclogged, and it's a lot faster to unclog a Soldapullt than it is to unclog any type of desoldering gun.

Have you ever worked on an assembly line in a factory? Extreme levels of repetition and pressure to not hold up the line tend to make people do things faster than you might imagine they can be done.



I was going to say this. I'll go side by side with my Hakko 808 any day, against anyone using a Soldapullt. I do repairs all day, and there's no comparison for my work. My Hakko has paid for itself 10x over easily, in the extra volume of repairs it lets me do.

I could see someone getting fast with a manual in a factory environment, but it's going to take a much bigger toll on your hands (repetitive injuries, anyone?). I couldn't imagine going head to head with a Hakko for hours straight, as it simply would require more physical work.

However, the Hakko does take time and skill to keep clean properly (and needs a proper disassemble and full clean periodically, which is a bit involved). And in a production environment, I can totally see them not being recommended, as you've got to take a chunk of time every few weeks/months, and fully clean it out.

Unless you have a separate dedicated infrastructure in place to keep them clean and maintained (i.e., a separate person/dept to do so), the complexity and cost of the faster tool could become a liability in the long run. Plus there is a different learning curve with a Hakko, vs a manual. Simpler may win out overall, in that type of environment.

Not to mention the added safety risk of another hot tool on your bench, fire hazard, etc. In a production environment, all of the risk and cost factors are factored in, in ways that aren't in other environments.
 
I could see someone getting fast with a manual in a factory environment, but it's going to take a much bigger toll on your hands (repetitive injuries, anyone?). I couldn't imagine going head to head with a Hakko for hours straight, as it simply would require more physical work.

That's certainly true.
 
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