I'm looking for a soldering iron with a nice balance of cheap and good. I was using an old (very old) gun but it doesn't get hot anymore. Right now I'm looking at the Weller SP40, for 25$ on eBay but I'm looking for suggestions because I fear that one might be a little too cheap.
Does anyone have the SP40 from Weller? Or another cheap iron that has lasted them forever?
I'd be using it to solder on boards, batteries for SNES (and other) carts, and in some cases to solder together a bunch of wires (I do a lot of electronics work in cars).
I spent about £70 on my soldering station. Haven't regretted it. If you're only going to do the odd bit of soldering and don't give a shit about how crummy a job you make of it as long as it works then go for that soldering iron. Weller are a pretty well known brand and they make good equipment.
Personally I like having temperature control and the freedom of a base unit which stays in one place with a nice flexible cable to the iron. Those ones that plug straight into mains can get a bit awkward as the cables aren't very forgiving. Also, invest in an iron stand with a decent tip cleaning sponge. It'll help keep your solder joints clean and your tip in good condition for longer.
I've been wanting to get a nice soldering station for a while, but I mostly have cheap irons right now. Two of them being Wellers, they're not bad at all. The two irons I have used the most is my 40w and 15w irons from Radio Shack. They're super cheap.
jeffesaurusrex wrote:I'm looking for a soldering iron with a nice balance of cheap and good. I was using an old (very old) gun but it doesn't get hot anymore. Right now I'm looking at the Weller SP40, for 25$ on eBay but I'm looking for suggestions because I fear that one might be a little too cheap.
Does anyone have the SP40 from Weller? Or another cheap iron that has lasted them forever?
I'd be using it to solder on boards, batteries for SNES (and other) carts, and in some cases to solder together a bunch of wires (I do a lot of electronics work in cars).
Well there is no Home Depot in my area, and I've already tried one of the Harbor Freight irons and they don't work well. I was looking at buying one on the internet. Even if I were to go to an actual physical store I'd still want some opinions on what to get. I've never even bought an iron and like I said I've been using an ancient soldering gun forever.
I have an Aoyue similar to (but cheaper than) this one. They get even cheaper still. I think this is a good middle ground between a lifetime investment in a quality station and a POS iron you curse every time you have to use.
Mine is actually this one, it has a thermostat which maintains the tip at a constant temperature when your working. I would not want ever to go back to a constant wattage iron. Granted, it's a cheap chinese knockoff of a Hakko product, but I'd rather pay for features than a brand name.
We are prepared to live in the plain and die in the plain!
jeffesaurusrex wrote:Well there is no Home Depot in my area, and I've already tried one of the Harbor Freight irons and they don't work well. I was looking at buying one on the internet. Even if I were to go to an actual physical store I'd still want some opinions on what to get. I've never even bought an iron and like I said I've been using an ancient soldering gun forever.
2nd and 3rd link has online order option. Cheaper to visit local hardware store. Don't know why you didn't like the Harbor Freight version. A Pencil Iron doesn't have much inside that could fail. Just plug in, wait for heat up, tin the tip with rosin core solder and ready to go.
It sounds like you do just enough that its worthwhile getting something decent. I've got a Weller digital -- WESD51 -- that is absolutely perfect for my needs. At the time, I found a sale for one under $100. The speed and precision on the thing prevents me from ever going back to analog controls, much less irons rated by their wattage. Then again, I do alot of fine PCB repair on pins and arcade machines.
When I needed an iron I decided I was willing to spend around $50-$60 to get a mid quality station, and settled on the Weller WLC100. The cheap stand alone irons from Radio Shack were tempting, but I thought that spending a little more might be a better investment. Aside from the fact I needed to buy another tip, the ST7 conical for more precision work, i'm happy with it.
I guess it really depends on how much you use it. If your only going to do a few projects a year, than a cheap stand alone iron makes sense... but in my case I knew a few projects would lead to more, and they did, so a higher quality setup made sense.
