Good solder iron under 60 CAD?

[Clanscorpia]

So because of my interest in microcircuits and controllers I've been wanting to learn to solder. My grandpa lent me his iron but it has a flat tip and heat very unevenly and covers almost the whole joint so It's near impossible to ruck solder up. I need an iron, temp regulator, and the iron to be the pen style. Some extra solder would be nice as well. I also have to be able to get it from canadian retailers. I'd prefer it to be under 60 CAD but I can go up a bit more. Thanks!

[Clanscorpia]

Is this a good one? https://www.amazon.ca/Variable-Temperature-Soldering-soldering-SHIPPING/dp/B009BXYOWC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465391784&sr=8-3&keywords=solder+iron

[Arc_Jester]

That one is good, I have a cheap chinese one and it works perfectly even on bigger joints. If you're just starting out I recommend you get lead based solder, it's easier to work with.

[mariushm]

No, that one actually isn't that good. It's not a temperature adjustable soldering station, the knob just controls the amount of energy going into the heating element.

It's not as good as temperature adjustable stations.

 

Unfortunately, good soldering stations that allow adjusting temperature and have a feedback mechanism to keep the iron tip at the set temperature are very hard to find at $60 Canadian dollars.

You may find some Hakko 936 chinese clones at close to that price on eBay but it will take a long time to get to you.

 

Here's some examples (i've set the shipping to canada and went through price+shipping lowest first) :

1. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/YiHUA-936-220V-ESD-Rework-Electric-SMD-Soldering-Station-Iron-Kit-Set-Welding-EU-/371605922994?hash=item56857064b2:g:hfYAAOSwKfVXGHpy

2. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/PE-936-220V-SMD-Constant-Temperature-Anti-static-Soldering-Iron-Station-Kit-EU-/371648055143?hash=item5687f34767:g:Jj4AAOSw1DtXEdss

3. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/PE-936-220V-Constant-Temperature-Electric-SMD-Soldering-Iron-Station-Kit-EU-New-/231970849402?hash=item36028a427a:g:pWIAAOSwubRXFIOc

4. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/set-AC-220V-936-SOLDERING-STATION-Heated-IRON-60W-200-480-for-900M-Series-tips-/321908705934?hash=item4af3410a8e:g:lM0AAOSw~bFWN2rK

 

Here's the whole list, go from page 11 and onwards, should be plenty : ebay link

 

and so on .. just search for "936 soldering station" .,.. Hakko 936 was a very popular soldering station made by Hakko, the Chinese copied the internal circuit and the case and the handles can even use genuine Hakko tips, and chinese tips (clones of Hakko tips) are also cheap as hell. The only negative point of these stations is that to save weight, they usually have a smaller transformer inside which means it takes slightly more time for the tip to reach the desired temperature (a few seconds more) and it may take a second more to bring the temperature of the tip back to your preset value if you suddenly put the tip on some big metal surface (this can be countered by just using a higher temperature setting by default)

 

Here's some soldering stations made by Atten and Yihua (both big manufacturers) , same 936 clones:

 

1. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ATTEN-937b-Anti-static-AC-110V-50W-Rework-Soldering-Station-Iron-Lead-Free-/160920947570?hash=item2577a2cb72:g:boAAAOxyRHdRzjng

2. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ATTEN-AT936B-Soldering-Station-Solder-Iron-AT-936-50W-220V-/321583814061?hash=item4adfe395ad:g:xi4AAOSwcldUZCAI

3. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/YiHUA-936-220V-ESD-Rework-Electric-SMD-Soldering-Station-Iron-Kit-Set-Welding-EU-/371605922994?hash=item56857064b2:g:hfYAAOSwKfVXGHpy

4. http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_fcid=2&_sop=15&_clu=2&gbr=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=yihua+soldering+station&LH_PrefLoc=2&_pgn=3&_skc=100&rt=nc

 

From genuine distributors, the cheapest soldering station I would recommend on Newark would be this one at $99 (not sure which kind) : http://canada.newark.com/tenma/21-10115/soldering-station-esd-safe-60w/dp/56T2208 It's a rebranded Atten soldering station (they make ok products)

By the way, they have the same iron as the one on Amazon under their own Tenma brand : http://canada.newark.com/tenma/21-7945/soldering-station-50w-110vac-100/dp/21J8631 (but again, not worth buying these kinds of irons due to no temperature feedback)

[Huntsman]

As @mariushm said.. get a Hakko clone from China.. got mine for around 55USD.

[mariushm]

@Clanscorpia , the reply above reminded me of this other long post I made a while ago, I think it would be a good idea to mention it in this thread as well :

 

I highly recommend watching the recommended videos at the bottom of the comment  linked above to learn why having a soldering iron with adjustable temperature makes a huge difference compared to cheaper soldering irons, and why it's important to have good solder wire and flux, and you'll also learn how to properly use a soldering iron - believe me, the majority of people get something wrong or have a bad habit.

It's about 1-2 hours of your life, but the advice will be useful a lifetime.

 

 

[klh2000]

Don't use lead free solder, it will make it much more difficult to learn. My personal favorite has been Kester 63/37 .030 diameter. There is almost no reason to use lead free solder for hobby use. If you were making and selling projects, I would use lead free so you would be compliant with RoHs.

 

[Clanscorpia]

How's this? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/YiHUA-936-220V-ESD-Rework-Electric-SMD-Soldering-Station-Iron-Kit-Set-Welding-EU-/371605922994?hash=item56857064b2:g:hfYAAOSwKfVXGHpy

[mariushm]

Yes, that looks good, BUT that particular station is the European version, with transformer inside for 220v AC. In Canada, you guys have 120v AC. 

These soldering stations don't accept any voltage like computer power supplies do, they're either 120v AC or 220v AC , +/- 10% or something like that. You can only make them work in US by changing the transformer inside (not worth it, can be almost as expensive as the whole soldering station) or using a 120v to 220v AC converter (expensive)

 

Find a model with input voltage between 110 and 130v AC.

 

Also, a suggestion.. in general these soldering stations come with a conical tip which is not really suitable for most soldering jobs, you should get a few of the most common tips to replace the default conical one. The reason this conical tip is not that suitable is because the tip is very sharp and there's little volume of metal in the tip, which means the tip can't really hold a lot of heat in it, so if you attempt to solder thicker wires to pcbs or anything thicker than IC pins, it's possible that the iron tip will cool down a lot, and the soldering station will need time to bring back the temperature to the preset value. Larger tips have more metal, are thicker, when they get hot they stay hot for longer time and they cool down slower when you touch the tip to some surface, so the tip only has a chance to cool down by a smaller percentage before the station reacts and starts heating it again. Basically, you need the proper tip for the job. Usually the best tips would be chisel type and then the ones with cup (see below).

 

The Hakko tips from when Hakko 936 existed had a product code starting with 900M so if you search on eBay for  "900M iron tip" or "900M yihua tip"  or "yihua 936 tip"  (replace yihua with other brands if you decide on others) you'll find plenty of tips compatible.

You can find sets of 5, sets of 10, set of 10 of mixed types of tips etc

Here's just an example : http://www.ebay.ca/itm/900M-T-Series-936-Replace-Pencil-Soldering-Solder-Leader-Free-Solder-Iron-Tips-/381412295046?var=&hash=item58cdf1c186:m:mt2dMGLvUHudquna7NMjFmg

Useful tips out of those listed there are (select from the Model: dropdown list to see picture) : 900M-T-B (conical but thicker), 900M-T-4C and/or 900M-T-5C (cup, good for drag soldering, solder wick etc), 900M-T-2.4D (chisel, pretty much the best as universal tip, also good for soldering larger wires to pcb holes), 900M-T-3.2D (even wider version of the previous)

900M-T-K (blade) is also great for soldering some things, but the picture in previous ebay link is confusing, this listing shows the tip style better: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/900M-T-K-936-Replace-Pencil-Soldering-Solder-Iron-Tip-/370376637278?hash=item563c2afb5e:m:m_IHq5wDAto0rIvbxmPuvuw

 

In my post above in which i wrote about solder wire types there's a couple of soldering tutorial videos which show of how some of these tips can be best used and why the default conical one is not that great.

 

[Danielvtheman]

if you can spend 20 more dollars get the Hakko 888D its the hands down best be carful their are some counterfeiters of this iron  out their. I use it is great. Its esd safe and it is temperature controlled.

[mariushm]

@Danielvtheman he's Canadian, and talks about Canadian dollars.  1 US dollar = 1.28 CDN

 

The cheapest Hakko 888D is probably around 68-70$ in US, Fry's used to sell this model (or perhaps it was fx-888, the one with the knob instead of buttons) with 20-30% off from time to time.

Adafruit sells it for $110 : https://www.adafruit.com/products/1204 but i have no idea of shipping costs to Canada

bdent.com and neselectronics sell them on eBay for $97 plus shipping

1. bdent : http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station-FX-888D-/281909458726?hash=item41a31cf726:g:Lj0AAOSwjVVVoBAF

2. nes : http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-Station-Includes-FX-8801-Iron-T18-D16-Tip-/171623281221?hash=item27f58b7245:g:THcAAOSwZkJURnxa

 

Still, 100 American Dollars become 130 Canadian dollars, add 10-15$ in shipping, maybe some hassles with customs and you're way outside the 60 CDN budget.