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Cheap soldering station or iron

DarkEnergy

I'm interested in getting into soldering to fix a couple of things here and there and may sometime in the future build a keyboard. I'm looking for opinions on cheap soldering tools/kits preferably under ~$40 USD. I see there's temperature controllable stand-alone "sticks" as well as "stations." Does it matter? For example I'm looking at something like this for a cheap "stick," or something like this for a top-of-my-budget "station" which already includes some things I'd normally need to buy separately (although probably low quality versions). Any other recommendations? Looking for something with a safe stand and interchangeable tips.

 

CPU - FX 8350 @ 4.5GHZ GPU - Radeon 5700  Mobo - M5A99FX Pro R2.0 RAM - Crucial Ballistix 16GB @ 1600 PSU - Corsair CX600M CPU Cooler - Hyper 212 EVO Storage - Samsung EVO 250GB, WD Blue 1TB

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Ksger T12 is the cheapest I'd go.

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SPECS:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro Max RAM: 32GB I forget GPU: MSI Vega 56 Storage: 256GB NVMe boot, 512GB Samsung 850 Pro, 1TB WD Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD PSU: Inwin P85 850w Case: Fractal Design Define C Cooling: Stock for CPU, be quiet! case fans, Morpheus Vega w/ be quiet! Pure Wings 2 for GPU Monitor: 3x Thinkvision P24Q on a Steelcase Eyesite triple monitor stand Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3 Keyboard: Focus FK-9000 (heavily modded) Mousepad: Aliexpress cat special Headphones:  Sennheiser HD598SE and Sony Linkbuds

 

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If you want something to last you a long time, get a soldering station with adjustable temperature control.  You want one with an actual temperature sensor in the tip and proper temperature control, not those sticks or cheap stations that just control the amount of power sent to the tip, without actually measuring the temperature.

 

Hakko 936 clones and modernized designs of that ancient soldering station are fine, you'll find replacement tips easily and spare parts.

As a beginner you'll rarely change tips so don't be so concerned about it.

 

In US, Newark  (it's Farnell in other regions) rebrands some soldering stations under their Tenma brand and they're decent and cheap:

21-19800 - Tenma - Soldering Station, 24 V, 900°F

21-10115 - Tenma - Soldering Station, 110 VAC, 896 °F

21-19750 - Tenma - Temperature Controlled Soldering Station

 

The first link is cheap but only 35w, which means it will take longer to get up to temperature, and will work harder to keep the tip to configured temperature, compared to 60-75w stations. For a beginner it would still be fine.

 

The Yihua 939d+ from Amazon seems OK, and as it's shipped from Amazon it should get to you in reasonable time.

A plus with the Newark models... while a bit more expensive... you do get good warranty and you can also add good quality solder and flux to your order.

 

Good solder is a must, aim for lead based solders, you should still be able to buy them in US, here in Europe only companies are allowed to buy leaded solders these days. Ideal would be 63/37 solder, the 60/40

 

Liquid flux really really helps, even if solder actually has flux inside, adding a drop of flux before soldering or desoldering something really helps and makes soldering much easier.

 

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23 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Ksger T12 is the cheapest I'd go.

Something like this? The $20 off new user coupon makes it a good price. Would need to get some accessories for it but at least I can pick up some nicer stuff, not whatever cheap stuff they bundle with it usually.

 

CPU - FX 8350 @ 4.5GHZ GPU - Radeon 5700  Mobo - M5A99FX Pro R2.0 RAM - Crucial Ballistix 16GB @ 1600 PSU - Corsair CX600M CPU Cooler - Hyper 212 EVO Storage - Samsung EVO 250GB, WD Blue 1TB

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23 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

Something like this? The $20 off new user coupon makes it a good price. Would need to get some accessories for it but at least I can pick up some nicer stuff, not whatever cheap stuff they bundle with it usually.

Yup, that's it.

 

Also get some leaded solder, some decent wick, and an Engineer SS02.

Quote me to see my reply!

SPECS:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro Max RAM: 32GB I forget GPU: MSI Vega 56 Storage: 256GB NVMe boot, 512GB Samsung 850 Pro, 1TB WD Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD PSU: Inwin P85 850w Case: Fractal Design Define C Cooling: Stock for CPU, be quiet! case fans, Morpheus Vega w/ be quiet! Pure Wings 2 for GPU Monitor: 3x Thinkvision P24Q on a Steelcase Eyesite triple monitor stand Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3 Keyboard: Focus FK-9000 (heavily modded) Mousepad: Aliexpress cat special Headphones:  Sennheiser HD598SE and Sony Linkbuds

 

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56 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Ksger T12 is the cheapest I'd go.

I've heard really good things about the Ksger, once you fix its case grounding it's supposed to be a pretty decent iron due to the T12 tips more directly heating the tip of the iron.

 

I would also consider a TS100 or the TS80 with power delivery, they should be around $50 not including a power supply IIRC.

ASU

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1 hour ago, Hackentosher said:

I've heard really good things about the Ksger, once you fix its case grounding it's supposed to be a pretty decent iron due to the T12 tips more directly heating the tip of the iron.

 

I would also consider a TS100 or the TS80 with power delivery, they should be around $50 not including a power supply IIRC.

I personally am not a fan of the TS irons. They are portable irons that people just treat as desktop ones. Also, as you mentioned, the power supply would have to be purchased separately, which would be a significant extra expense.

Quote me to see my reply!

SPECS:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro Max RAM: 32GB I forget GPU: MSI Vega 56 Storage: 256GB NVMe boot, 512GB Samsung 850 Pro, 1TB WD Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD PSU: Inwin P85 850w Case: Fractal Design Define C Cooling: Stock for CPU, be quiet! case fans, Morpheus Vega w/ be quiet! Pure Wings 2 for GPU Monitor: 3x Thinkvision P24Q on a Steelcase Eyesite triple monitor stand Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3 Keyboard: Focus FK-9000 (heavily modded) Mousepad: Aliexpress cat special Headphones:  Sennheiser HD598SE and Sony Linkbuds

 

🏳️‍🌈

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20 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

I personally am not a fan of the TS irons. They are portable irons that people just treat as desktop ones. Also, as you mentioned, the power supply would have to be purchased separately, which would be a significant extra expense.

The 80 is for sure, but it's certainly good enough for basic soldering. The 100 is a beast when powered by 24V (6s lipo) and can supply up to 65W. I've spent a lot of time with the 100s, the main issue I have with them is the default firmware isn't great (but you can fix that) and that it doesn't come with a stand. You absolutely need somewhere to put your iron when you put it down. Looking past those pitfalls, it's a great little iron that is able to do fine SMD work up to heavy power electronics (I think the largest I'd go is two 14awg wires, beyond that the tiny stock tip struggles to deliver a lot of heat). Also the interface is better than the Hakko FX888D, but then the Hakko is more comfortable to use.

Source: Used both for hundreds of hours at work.

ASU

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