Half price LCD solder station at Maplins - £30

[lemmywinks]

Just got this offer in an email - looks brilliant for £30: Just bought a new budget solder station for £15, wish I'd waited a bit now!

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/60w-professional-lcd-solder-station-with-esd-protection-a55kj?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=15P2_W2_D6&utm_content=Product-1&utm_campaign=15P2-7

[discreet]

Woah, that's a proper bargain! Thanks for the heads-up, Steve.

[flyfisher]

Looks good. Chinese made, of course, but that doesn't mean low quality these days.
Here's the manufacturers info: http://www.atten.com/product/at980d-soldering-station/

If I didn't already have a Weller soldering station I'd certainly give it a try at that price.

[essexbasscat]

What's the deal here ? if the solder doesn't melt, the iron's it's not hot enough. If it's too hot, the solder spits.

Why is this unit any better than a standard soldering iron ?

Anyone else think this is a gimmick ?

[planer]

[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1398367403' post='2433506']Why is this unit any better than a standard soldering iron ?[/quote]

Because it's controllable heat. How many dinners would you burn if your oven only did 'max'?

I use temperature controlled soldering stations at work because the stuff I solder isn't always the same, due to...

Different PCB construction, different solder pad sizes, different components, some components are more sensitive to heat than others (so I have to be careful not to smoke them!), different solder types melt at different temperatures.

If you're soldering wires together or into connectors, they will often be different thicknesses, the insulation will be of a different type (PVC melts, PTFE doesn't), some will take the heat and some will just melt, etc etc etc.

But at home, I have an old, non-adjustable iron. It's fine for most things, but it won't do heavy stuff and it won't do delicate stuff. If that's your soldering 'world', then a cheap 'stick' type iron will be just dandy.

A 60W soldering station for £30? I'm in (bet you a quid the cable is crap though...)

[lemmywinks]

To be fair you don't need anything fancy for most things, the simple adjustable ones for £15 are fine for making leads and wiring up basses. I've done some laptop and tablet repairs with mine, however £30 for something better isn't going to break the bank. If I hadn't replaced my cheapy recently (the old one went kaput after years of service) I'd have grabbed one of these.

[flyfisher]

It's also less about the actual temperature than maintaining that temperature over a wide range of different soldering tasks.

Imagine soldering the lead of a, say, capacitor, to a PCB track. The cap lead and PCB track have little mass and therefore require little heat to get up to the set temperature - in other words, the tip of the iron will not be cooled down very much by the 'thermal mass' of the item being soldered. In this case, a fixed low wattage iron would be fine.

Now imagine soldering the same cap lead to the case of a tone pot. This is a much larger piece of metal with a larger thermal mass and will cool down the tip of a low wattage iron, making it impossible to melt the solder until the iron has recovered its (and the pot's) temperature, meaning the iron needs to be applied for longer, meaning that the heat travels to other components possibly damaging them. In this case, a high wattage iron is needed that will quickly get the work up to temperature and make the joint without leaving the heat applied for a long time.

So, if you have two (or more) sizes of irons then you'll be sorted for a wide range of jobs. Or, use a temp-controlled soldering station that like the one mentioned and be able to safely use it for a wide range of tasks.

If you only ever use a soldering iron for making up instrument leads, then a suitable fixed wattage iron will be fine.

[linear]

Can I ask, out of interest, how do you know what temperature to use for a given task? Also, what would be considered a suitable fixed-wattage of iron for making up cables? That's something I have to do at some point, and I do have a fixed-wattage iron in a box somewhere.

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='linear' timestamp='1398370511' post='2433537']
Can I ask, out of interest, how do you know what temperature to use for a given task? Also, what would be considered a suitable fixed-wattage of iron for making up cables? That's something I have to do at some point, and I do have a fixed-wattage iron in a box somewhere.
[/quote]

You can quickly guage it, it's pretty obvious if it's too cold as you'll have to leave the iron on for too long, similarly if you're melting PCBs and the plastic coating on thin wires then it's too hot!. I've used a 40w iron for cables before but to be honest you can get adjustable ones for not much money. I have one like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28020-Analog-Soldering-Station-150-480-C-60-W-with-Silicon-Wire-/280757198381?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item415e6ede2d

I prefer the bulky solder station type as it's more stable and has somewhere to put the iron, making it safer than a loose iron and those flimsy metal prop stands.

[JapanAxe]

Ordered!

[linear]

I'm think my simple iron is something like 15 watts presumably because it dates from the period when lead solder was still used in everything, and because it's cheap and rubbish. I have soldered small gauge cable with it successfully in the past, but when I tried to unsolder a ribbon cable from a PCB a few years ago I burnt some tracks off the board. Time for an upgrade I think.

[TorturedSaints]

That's the one I bought at full price. It's worked well for me. A good buy.

[Davebassics]

Would be useful when it comes to multi layered PCBs with annoying ground planes that suck the heat away. My experience with maplins soldering irons has been varied. I had one were the handle melted and another where the tips corroded within a week. My first soldering iron from maplins lasted me 4 years and costed £3.99. Those were the days!

[GarethFlatlands]

[quote name='Davebassics' timestamp='1399568617' post='2445473']
Would be useful when it comes to multi layered PCBs with annoying ground planes that suck the heat away. My experience with maplins soldering irons has been varied. I had one were the handle melted and another where the tips corroded within a week. My first soldering iron from maplins lasted me 4 years and costed £3.99. Those were the days!
[/quote]

Likewise, my £20 (on sale) heat adjustable one died after less than 10 hours of use and my £5 blue plastic one still works fine.

[Telebass]

I use an old Weller TCP station built from discarded spares when the factory I worked in closed. Have several different bits for it, so covers most jobs. Have used this type for 40 years, so know what I can or can't do with them. The biggest bugbear for me was the disappearance of tin/lead solder, but what I have left will probably last my lifetime!

[bertbass]

Here you go, http://www.rapidonline.com/FFSearchResults.aspx?query=solder&filterSearchScope=1