Velleman solder station

The best bar none!

Sayal Electronics and Hobbies

Regards,

Michel

Hello Jukka,

Very nice too bad we can not buy that in Canada! I like the hot air blower would be a great benefit to blow away the fumes.

Regards

Michel

I've used the Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station (yeah, it is $137).



The key is the ability of the station to keep the temperature that you set it to. Note that doesn't mean that it has a display of a temperature -but that the temperature is actually the value indicated.

This lets you crank up the temp when soldering near plastic: counter intuitive, but a hotter iron means you can heat up the solder point on the rail quicker to get the wire soldered on fast, rather than a lower temp that will heat the rail for a longer period and cause the plastic ties to melt.

Or turn down the heat if soldering on a circuit board where you don't want to damage the electrical traces on the board.

Having a sponge (to keep the tip clean) a solid stand (to keep you from knocking the iron over or burning yourself or your work) and a solid temperature control are the key features. Other brands do that as well.

If you do more extensive electronics, then a station that has more capabilities such as de-soldering (for circuit board work) or heat-gun capability (for reflow soldering on spots, etc) can be usefull but is probably overkill for model railroad.


That said, a simple pencil iron can be sufficient if your only doing soldering of wires to tabs but for soldering to k-track rails and the like I'd want one with a lot of power.. .and you still need the stand and sponge in some form... and the pencil only ones have the main lead come out the back of the iron which is more stiff than the leads from the soldering stations. The station wires being more flexible make the iron a bit easier to maneuver.

Why not? These types of soldering stations are a dime a dozen off aliexpress. No different to buying your Marklin from Germany.

Soldering stations have been discussed in previous threads - will see if I can find tbem.

There was a Marklin branded station - check the 2005 catalog for a descrption. It isn't available now though.

Hi all

Thanks to all for the advice

I think that I am going to order this :

http://www.cafr.ebay.ca/itm/162578083509

Have a nice day

Thewolf

Oh yeah ...you're right ...I have forgotten this point

There are always more expensive options. And what is expensive to one person isn't to another (eg I don't find $140 expensive, but others might find a soldering iron over $30 expensive).

Why would you need that - it has de-soldering capability, which is a critical feature if you are doing electronics/circuit board repair. It has special hollow tips and a vacuum system to allow the extraction of solder away from the boards to allow parts to be removed and replaced. And it does it in a reliable and rapid manner. There are small pump type systems and solder wicks that work ok for occasional work, but if your working on a lot of stuff day in and day out such an expensive part is worth the money in time saved and other material costs as well as reliability.

Same goes for fume extraction systems - some just are fans that pull the smoke/air/paint away from the face but blow it out the back of the hood and back into the room - so you breath it later at a lower concentration, or it settles over the room. The more expensive ones blow the air through a set of filters and media that removes the non-air substances from the extracted air and blow the cleaned air back into the room.

For the MRR hobby where soldering is a very occasional thing, but you work around plastics - to be easier to work, a $100 station is a good option, but a $30 pencil iron will do for many and just needs a bit more care in use and is slightly harder to use.

Check out the Hakko brand of soldering irons they are good and available here in Canada.

http://www.canadarobotix...fx888d-soldering-station

Cheers
Darren