What are you using for soldering/board work??

I have an older PACE MBT-250 digital setup and a PPS-85 analog setup. The irons are interchangeable which is very nice.

I have tips and irons to do QFP, LCC, PLCC, SOJ, SOIC, TSSOP, SOJ, SOT, and more. The only one I don't do is BGA.

Do you do hot air or hot iron for SMT components? I do hot iron as it's easier and quicker than hot air... plus you don't have to keep solder paste around which tends to go bad if you don't use it up fast enough or keep it refrigerated.

RJ

edit: PS: It has a vacuum pump for desoldering and for removing/lifting SMT chips such as QFP/PQFP from boards.
 
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I have a Tenma digital soldering station. It does an excellent job.

I use a soldapult for desoldering, but I know now that if I want to do higher quality - and faster - rework I need a true vacuum desoldering station too.
 
For desoldering I'm using a weller wrs1002x
0608WRS1002X.jpg
and for putting things back together. I'm using a weller, ws51

obr563_uvod.jpg
 
I have a Hakko 936-11 for soldering, and a $10 radio shack desoldering iron.

The radio shack unit works surprisingly well! But I will be upgrading to a Hakko 808 soon.

I use the 60/40 rosin core solder from radio shack as well.
 
I have an older PACE MBT-250 digital setup and a PPS-85 analog setup. The irons are interchangeable which is very nice.

I have tips and irons to do QFP, LCC, PLCC, SOJ, SOIC, TSSOP, SOJ, SOT, and more. The only one I don't do is BGA.

Do you do hot air or hot iron for SMT components? I do hot iron as it's easier and quicker than hot air... plus you don't have to keep solder paste around which tends to go bad if you don't use it up fast enough or keep it refrigerated.

RJ

edit: PS: It has a vacuum pump for desoldering and for removing/lifting SMT chips such as QFP/PQFP from boards.

I do both air and iron on SMT's depending on the component I am working on. We use the Atten 850D for hot air applications. I dod agree that the iron is definately faster than air. With the iron I work at 740 degrees, air 380. I only use soldering paste to clean my tips,nothing else. The MBT's vacuum system is a must have and I love it.
 
Don't start hatin'...

But...

I use one of these:

D650.jpg


(Hides/prepares for tomatoes to be thrown)

For desoldering, I just use desoldering braid.
 
I use a similar Pace setup. Where do you buy your solder?

Wherever I can.

I got lucky and bought 4 .032 1lb rolls at a local flea market about 3 years ago for $5 each. At the time I had recently purchased a 1lb roll and have now gone through it and one of the 4... I'm about 20% through another roll too. That gives me 2 full ones left.

RJ
 
Don't start hatin'...

(Hides/prepares for tomatoes to be thrown)

For desoldering, I just use desoldering braid.

You're a better man than I, I think braid is EVIL, I've almost never gotten it to do a good job.

Personally? I'm rigging a Weller desoldering bulb tool with a pump stolen from a nebulizer.
 
Right now I use a $5 Wal Mart iron with 60/40 for soldering, and the same iron plus wick and solder sucker for de-soldering. It seems keeping the tip super clean helps the iron work better than expected.

Been looking into getting a Weller WESD51 as I hear the difference will be orgasmic once I finally break down and buy one or something similar.
 
Don't start hatin'...

But...

I use one of these:

D650.jpg


(Hides/prepares for tomatoes to be thrown)

For desoldering, I just use desoldering braid.

I had one back in the day!!! LOL I tell you what that thing would get hot as hell to the point where the tip would glow orange. I always had problems with it getting so hot those nuts that hold the tip into the gun would come loose all the time. When you'd tighten it back up "BAM" orange tip.
 
I have one of those from about 20 years ago myself. Well, I may have finally decided to toss it during our recent move.
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's intended to be used on copper water pipes, or something... :rolleyes: It gets wicked hot, really, really fast.

And I just use solid 14g copper wire to make my own replaceable tip part... It burns up a lot faster, but is also dirt cheap to make! ;)
 
I use a Weller WES51 and a good old blue solder sucker.

WES51.jpg
ds017.jpg


I get desoldering braid from cheap online stores like DealExtreme. I've been using the same spool of 60/40 solder for years, so I don't even remember where I bought it.
 
A cheapo RadioShack 15 watt iron and a Weller 40 watt iron.
A homebuild desoldering iron that consists of a small metal tube that gets hot while a vacuum pump provides suction. It looks totally screwed and cheap but it works like a champ.

If things get really hairy I go out to my uncle's place and use his equipment since he is an embedded firmware developer by trade and has a downright wicked lab setup at his place with high end soldering equipment, scopes and a wall full of about any cap/diode/doodad I need.
 
Trust me I won't hate, I use one too. Sometimes there are components that have large heat sinks, and lot's of solder. Haven't run across much on arcade. does come in handy for flybacks.

Don't start hatin'...

But...

I use one of these:

D650.jpg


(Hides/prepares for tomatoes to be thrown)

For desoldering, I just use desoldering braid.
 
You're a better man than I, I think braid is EVIL, I've almost never gotten it to do a good job.

Personally? I'm rigging a Weller desoldering bulb tool with a pump stolen from a nebulizer.

Hmmmm...we have a battery operated 'snot sucker' that we used for our daughter when she was an infant. I wonder if the wife would mind if I cannibalized it? :D
 
Currently I am using a dual heat soldering iron from Radio Shaft. The tip is almost gone so I went back to get a replacement and guess what, they don't have them for that model. :mad: I had an old Cub Scout wood burning pencil that I used for 35 years and only had to replace the tip once. The RS one is just over 1 year old and it burned the tip almost off.


So I just ordered one of these:

44_1.JPG


I'm hoping it is a step up.

BTW: I still have one of the Wellers. I use it for stained glass work when I get time.

ken
 
Same thing happened to me on my prior iron. It became a "special order" item, which I ordered (at a high cost). Once I got home, I thought why the heck did I just do that? At that point I decided to buy a "real" soldering iron.
 
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