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[Chris Nixon]

I got the FX888D a week ago. Granted I was previously using a £15 iron that plugged directly into the wall, but I'm doing much better soldering than I ever was before. I've found the tip much easier to keep clean too. Just be careful with the temperature adjustment, it's quite easy to accidentally change the calibration offset rather than the actual iron temperature and then wonder why it's not as hot as it says it should be.

Chris

[Bob Leonard]

Thanks for the tip (pun intended).

[Scott Holtzman]

I'm not sure about them Scott. The quality would appear to be outstanding, but they seemed to be more geared for copper flashing and branding cattle.

LoL,  I assure you I have used it for more detailed work than that. 

In fact just the other day I did a fantastic job of lifting a whole trace off a small Yamaha mixer board I was replacing the pot on for a friend.  I don't think it was the fault of the iron.  I had on two pairs of reading glasses and my face pressed against a magnifying lamp.  I managed to fix it with a strand of wire from a scrap of cat 5e.

Growing old is not a graceful process. 

At least I am doing it with the same iron I used 30 years ago.  I can still get tips for it.  It's not like I am doing SMD work. 

[John Halliburton]

I know this has been discussed before but I recently dumped 3 soldering stations, all of them Weller, but all of them over 20 years old.

I'm leaning towards Weller again. Tips are easy to find, parts always available, and they work well. I'm also interested in Hakko. I hear good things about them and tips/parts seem to be available.

I solder everything from components level to grounding steel chassis in vintage amplifiers, but for the heavy work I use dedicated soldering irons, no problems there.

Digital to about 60 watts makes sense to me. Tips up to about 3/16" screw driver type are needed. Any suggestions based on personal use??

Used Weller stations for years just out of school and thru to Sound Physics Labs days, and only the more expensive unit was any good(digital readout).  The less expensive ones needed repairs after a few years.

Bought my own Hakko 936 just after that, have had great service from it for almost fifteen years now. 

A couple of years ago Andy Peters got wind of a used Metcal at his local electronics shop and I asked him if he would ship it if I bought it.  He did, and it was one of the best investments yet-it is my bench soldering station, and the Hakko travels in one of my tool boxes.

Just my experiences, YMMV of course.

Best regards,

John

[Jim McKeveny]

Growing old is not a graceful process. 

It's not like I am doing SMD work.

Eyesight is overrated!

Traces use no more conductor than necessary to get shit out of the door. It is fogged on. Don't take it personally. Everything is SMD work now.

[Scott Helmke]

They're all pretty decent.

My home setup is a Weller WES51 I bought probably 13-14 years ago, no problems other than having worn out the original tip.  At work it was a Hakko 936, also no problems aside from wearing out tips.  A couple years ago I upgraded the work station to an "Oki by Metcal", which is basically a Metcal - that one actually did have the AC inlet (fancy one with filtering) go bad. Otherwise it's a really nice quick iron for heavier stuff.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

I'm using a Weller WD-1 power supply with both the 1001/1002 irons.  I got the unit on Craigslist for $100 about 7 years ago with one iron, and then bought the other iron for it new.  I love everything about it: fast warmup, great temp regulation, 3 push-button temp presets, tips from tiny SMD to chisels with enough power behind them to solder 12-ga wire onto anything I've tried.

[Stephen Kirby]

Traces use no more conductor than necessary to get shit out of the door. It is fogged on. Don't take it personally.

Huh?  What makes you think this?  What PWB process "fogs" conductors on?  Most low cost boards made offshore use the basic process of etching away from copper foil.  Larger shops making more sophisticated boards use a process called pattern plating where a thin strike of conductor is put on, then a resist for the blank areas and then copper is plated up on the conductors and holes.  This saves the waste stream of etched off copper for those shops large enough to get western attention and want to meet green standards.

[Jim McKeveny]

Huh?  What makes you think this?  What PWB process "fogs" conductors on?  Most low cost boards made offshore use the basic process of etching away from copper foil.  Larger shops making more sophisticated boards use a process called pattern plating where a thin strike of conductor is put on, then a resist for the blank areas and then copper is plated up on the conductors and holes.  This saves the waste stream of etched off copper for those shops large enough to get western attention and want to meet green standards.

Not literally fogged-on!

My observation over last few decades is that the actual amounts of copper on many traces is less and less, making component-level repair more difficult. But thanks for the manufacturing lesson..

[Josh Millward]

I know this has been discussed before but I recently dumped 3 soldering stations, all of them Weller, but all of them over 20 years old.

I'm leaning towards Weller again. Tips are easy to find, parts always available, and they work well. I'm also interested in Hakko. I hear good things about them and tips/parts seem to be available.

I solder everything from components level to grounding steel chassis in vintage amplifiers, but for the heavy work I use dedicated soldering irons, no problems there.

Digital to about 60 watts makes sense to me. Tips up to about 3/16" screw driver type are needed. Any suggestions based on personal use??

I've been using a Weller WTCPT for more than 15 years and it has been a fantastic iron. You do have to change tips to get different temperatures, but there is a nice selection available.

With all the comments about the Hakko and Metcal irons I may have to look at one if this Weller ever gives me any trouble, but I doubt it will be any time soon.

[ProSoundWeb Community]