Which desoldering tool?

dahnz

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I'm looking to upgrade from my solder sucker (I just can't seem to get all the solder out with it) and am looking at either a Hakko 808 (about $160 from ebay) or one of these stations from Circuit Specialists:

Blackjack Solderwerks BK4000: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9750

CSI474A: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/10146

Any opinions? The Hakko has the advantage that it's a well-known brand and there are plenty of spares available, the CSI474A says it's 220v (which we use down here in NZ), and the Blackjack just looks cool (and is the cheapest). I have a stepdown transformer so 110V is not an issue in any case.

The two Circuit Specialists stations look to me like they use the same spares and handgun, so how much of a difference there is between them I'm not sure.

Cheers, Dominic
 
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I just got the Blackjack one a little bit ago, though I haven't used it a whole lot, nor have I used any of the others. I also was looking at the Hakko 808, but went w/ the Blackjack because I thought a small light desoldering gun with a seperate pump would be more comfortable than carrying the one w/ the pump built in. I didn't consider the other (or several like it on ebay) because of the 220V thing.

About the Blackjack... the little bit that I have used it, it seems to work just fine, so I'd have no problem recommending it.

DogP
 
Thanks DogP. I like the fact that the Blackjack has temperature on the scale rather than just numbers (as on the Hakko and CSI474A), though that's probably not a real issue in practice.

I find it strange that the CSI474A is 220v. Must put a lot of US customers off right off the bat.

PS. DogP - which tips does the Blackjack come with? It says it has three and I presume they're the 1.0mm, 1.5mm, and 1.8mm ones but it doesn't specifically say that (it could come with three all the same).
 
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Yeah, I think they're all temperature controlled, though it's nice to know actual temp, since I know what temp I like my regular iron at. IIRC to control the Hakko temp, you had to use a small screwdriver to adjust a small pot, which did seem kinda weird.

I'm not sure what the actual size of the tips are, but there's big, medium and small ;) . So, probably 1.8, 1.5, and 1.0.

DogP
 
The hakko is definitely better quality, but the other will work fine. The generic one looks identical to the one on my aoyou (sp?) 2702 which also has a hot air gun. The gun feels kinda cheap, but it works fine. If you are interested in hot air, you might look at the 2702. Nothing about it is the same quality as the better brands, but it works and is much cheaper. If you are using a soldapult now, any of these will bring a smile to your face every time you use them.

If money was no object though, I would have went with the 808 and a separate rework. A friend has one, and it is nice to not have the base.
 
The Blackjack looks like the more solid of the two. It has a wider temperature range. The only thing that concerns me is the long internal pipe and the cleaning drill. That tell me that solder is going to get stuck inside and need to be cleaned periodically. Otherwise, both of them look like they will do the job. The Hakko has proven that it will do the job.

ken
 
I personally have the CSI model of desoldering station. I can't say I like it that much. It does a good job of desoldering at first. Be sure to wet the small sponge and squeeze it out before installing it in the gun. Use the silicone grease to get a good seal on the rubber o-ring portions. Keep the gun clean using the rod and the drill bit. If you are doing a lot of desoldering, I find that the solder does "drip" into the tube and clog it up a bit. There is a suction indicator that lets you know when the gun is not performing optimally. You need to get differetnt size tip openings for the gun as well or else you will be struggling to get the desoldering gun over the pins of a flyback. I purchased extra "spring" solder capturing devices so that I can hot swap them in the middle of a big project and keep going. To clean them out, you are supposed to just elongate the spring and the solder blob in theory falls into the trash. When that doesn't work, I fire up my big soldering gun and stick the cone of the spring over the hot tip and hold it over the trash. I then let the blob of solder fall into the trash and then set the now hot spring onto the dampened sponge on my desoldering station to cool. I find that I am cleaning the gun more than I care to. I can actually make faster progress using the old rubber bulb thing from Radio shack. Honest! Don't get me wrong. When I got the desoldering station, I thought it was the cat's meow but as time has passed, it is more of a hindrance than help at times. I also find that I need to crank the heat up higher than I would like in order to get the tip hot enough to desolder. I am going to rebuild the gun with replacement parts from this site:

http://store.sra-solder.com/product.php/6268/0

If you search around you will find the same setup as the CSI model but in 110 voltage. I think it is the 2072. The link I provided is another option I am considering. Any more questions?

Edit: here is a link to the original model you are looking at:

http://store.sra-solder.com/product.php/6417/22
 
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I'm looking to upgrade from my solder sucker (I just can't seem to get all the solder out with it) and am looking at either a Hakko 808 (about $160 from ebay) or one of these stations from Circuit Specialists:

Blackjack Solderwerks BK4000: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9750

CSI474A: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/10146

Any opinions? The Hakko has the advantage that it's a well-known brand and there are plenty of spares available, the CSI474A says it's 220v (which we use down here in NZ), and the Blackjack just looks cool (and is the cheapest). I have a stepdown transformer so 110V is not an issue in any case.

The two Circuit Specialists stations look to me like they use the same spares and handgun, so how much of a difference there is between them I'm not sure.

Cheers, Dominic

I've heard really bad things about anything that Circuit Specialists makes. I just bought this:

http://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-474A-Desoldering-Station/dp/B001UDBGSQ

I bought it straight from from http://store.sra-solder.com and saved a few dollars.
 
I've heard really bad things about anything that Circuit Specialists makes.

I don't know that Circuit Specialists make these - as has been pointed out, they appear to just be rebadged Aoyues (which in turn may well be rebadges of something else).

Pat, I really appreciate your comments - that's the sort of thing you usually only find out once you've shelled out the cash. I actually don't need to find a 110v version because we use 220v here in NZ; I just found it odd that CS promote the 220v version through their US store.

As for the Hakko, there's an outfit on ebay selling them for $160 or best offer, so I might be able to get one for maybe $140-150. With postage taken into account and bearing in mind the Hakko is substantially lighter than either of the stations and can be sent USPS (CS ship through UPS), I can probably get the Hakko for about the same all-up price, so I'm looking again at that option based on everyone's comments.

That said, I also spent more time practising with my Soldapullt last night and made more progress. A lot of the solder on these old Williams boards seems quite hard to melt, even with new solder added. I've read that adding flux helps, so I'm thinking of buying one of those flux pens. Anyone have experience with them?
 
I personally use a Weller WRS1002X I love it. It sees heavy use, so I have to clean out the collection frequently, because it sucks really good. they have disposable cardboard tubes with filters. I just bought some new filters, and clean the tubes out. So far I've gotten at least 10+ re-uses out of the tubes. It came with 5, so I just swap until I run out, then pull the filter, and push out the solder. If the filter is good replace, and GTG.

Tips come in a variety of sizes, cheapest I've seen them is like $11 but they seem to last quite a while with as much soldering as I do. The Pace I use at works goes through tips 5x as fast as my weller.
 
I'm looking to upgrade from my solder sucker (I just can't seem to get all the solder out with it) and am looking at either a Hakko 808 (about $160 from ebay) or one of these stations from Circuit Specialists:

Blackjack Solderwerks BK4000: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9750

CSI474A: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/10146

Any opinions? The Hakko has the advantage that it's a well-known brand and there are plenty of spares available, the CSI474A says it's 220v (which we use down here in NZ), and the Blackjack just looks cool (and is the cheapest). I have a stepdown transformer so 110V is not an issue in any case.

The two Circuit Specialists stations look to me like they use the same spares and handgun, so how much of a difference there is between them I'm not sure.

Cheers, Dominic

I just picked up one of these:

http://www.ntscope.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MTC&Product_Code=ML-859

It works really well, but the soldering stand really sucks (no pun intended!)

It's supposed to be a knock off of the Hakko.
 
I have a Hakko 808 and love it, one thing to remember with most desoldering tools is that they will have consumable parts like filters or tubes or both. I've also found after every couple of years, the valves on my Hakko get gummed up from the flux smoke.

So my advice is to make damn sure you can get replacement parts for the things you'll use up in regular usage of the tool.

I recommend the Hakko since it works so well and really what's your time worth? If you end up with a crappy desoldering tool and constantly damage traces, imagine how quick you'll destroy that $50 or $100 in savings.
 
I just picked up one of these:

http://www.ntscope.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MTC&Product_Code=ML-859

It works really well, but the soldering stand really sucks (no pun intended!)

It's supposed to be a knock off of the Hakko.

It's a total rip of the Hakko. Having a Hakko 472 and comparing to mine. Same filter tubes, springs, nozzel, even the heater appears to be identical. Also the filter sizes, which it nicely came with a packet of (!). The spin up time of the solder pump seemed a little slower than the Hakko but it was definitely very functional.

- James
 
Why do you need these special desoldering irons when you can just use a good digital solderer and a sucking bulb?

Well when you desolder one or two chips yeah solder sucker is fine. BUt when you start getting into heavy repairs it becomes more trouble than it's worth. Desolder guns are faster, and more complete at desoldering.
 
Hakko 808 was on sale for a little more than 100.00 on Amazon I couldn't resist ans I'm glad I have it!
 
Well when you desolder one or two chips yeah solder sucker is fine. BUt when you start getting into heavy repairs it becomes more trouble than it's worth. Desolder guns are faster, and more complete at desoldering.

That isn't necessarily true. A quality solder sucker (a full size Edsyn Soldapullt is the only good one I know of) desolders as completely as it is possible to desolder if it is used correctly, and it is also plenty fast once you get the hang of it. We used Edsyn Soldapullts at the PCB factory I used to work at, and it wasn't limited to "desoldering one or two chips". Sometimes you'd have to desolder an entire PCB's worth of 4-legged terminal blocks (400 solder joints), and given that it was an assembly line, you didn't get to take your time doing it either. I'd estimate that it takes an average factory worker 2 seconds per joint once they get going.

By the way, we all had access to Metcal MX-DS1 desoldering guns hooked to our Metcal MX-500 solder stations and shop air ...

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... but hardly anyone ever bothered to use them. I certainly wouldn't trade my Soldapullt for any desoldering gun you'd care to name.
 

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