Portable Soldering Iron

[Ahoy Hoy]

Im after a portable soldering iron any recommendations.
Needs to be compact and actually work as a soldering iron.

[Slottr]

Just any soldering iron? They're pretty small..

[Hackentosher]

There's a nice one on Banggood, idk how portable it is to you. It's small and doesn't have a big station attatched to it. $50 or so.

[mariushm]

The only ones worth buying are the ones that use gas cartridges (refillable with lighter fluid) or one based on older design with a beefy battery and special tips.

 

 

Stay away for usb soldering irons (they don't have enough wattage to heat and maintain tip hot, the tips for those are also too small and don't have temperature reservoir meaning they cool down as soon as you touch something with the tips.

 

There are proper soldering stations that are quite portable, see for example Ersa i-con series  .. if you don't take the iron holder with you, they take little space :

 

 

they're expensive though, compared to hakko 936 clones or hakko 888.

 

I have a Hakko 936 soldering station and I also bought a used Pace HW-50 off eBay... this station is quite "portable" , in the sense that it's lightweight and a nice little cube shape and easy to carry in a suitcase or something like that.  HW 50 is no longer made but ST 50 is similar : http://www.paceworldwide.com/products/soldering-stations/digital-control-soldering-systems/st-50-with-td100-soldering-iron

 

 

 

[Unimportant]

You can find lots of 6/7.2V soldering irons on google. I have a 6V ersa multitip.

Simply use 2  18650 li ions in series and you're set. Been working great for me, and since they're standardized batteries, cheap to replace when worn.

[ApocalypseTugboat]

I have access to a weller portasol - when I've had to use it, its been great. I don't do much soldering these days so I can't imagine paying more than twice what I did for a yihua station for a portable iron - but if you're going to be using it frequently or for work, I would say go with the best you can afford. 

[JustRichard]

I've bought one of these. I plug it into a powerbank 2A output. It works great for me.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Portable-USB-5V-8W-Electric-Powered-Soldering-Iron-Pen-Tip-Touch-Switch-kit-/272186206596?hash=item3f5f8fe984:g:buIAAOSwwE5WapFv

[r4tch3t]

I've used a butane soldering iron,  it lives in my toolbox.  they work just as well as a normal iron,  adjustable heat, easy refill,  only takes a minute.

[spamy666]

you can get Butane gas soldering irons and they are meant to be very good I hear.  Not sure where you live but this is a link to Amazon UK

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gas+soldering+iron

[Scheer]

I've had good luck with this one: https://www.amazon.com/Iso-Tip-7971-SolderPro-Butane-Soldering/dp/B001RIDT84

 

They last a year or two of occasional usage and for the money you just buy a new one... but a few times we absolutely needed it when it failed and each time it was a plugged up gas orifice from dirty butane, easy fix.

[bob345]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HHK7KG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I would highly recommend this one. Been using it near every day for the past 3 years and have yet to have any issues. 

[LittleCarrot]

On 12/3/2016 at 10:21 AM, wrathoftheturkey said:

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/seeed-mini-soldering-iron-deluxe-kit

The Seed is a rebrand of this: http://www.banggood.com/TS100-Digital-OLED-Programable-Interface-DC-5525-Soldering-Iron-Station-Built-in-STM32-Chip-p-984214.html?rmmds=search