My soldering iron died today...

[OldHvyMec]

I just got a new de-soldering/soldering station. Vacuum pump and everything. Fancy!

My older station was for surface mount also and I seldom found a use for it other than shrink tube and build a cable that needed to be soldered
with ST added.

I still have my old wooden stick soldering iron, it's for serious, fast point-to-point silver solder that is 1000 years old
like the old turret boards.

It will solder a point-to-point passive in about 5 minutes if I'm really slow and always leaves a beautiful shiny solder joint.
It has branded me a few times, through the years though.

 

[devinplombier]

Just get a Pinecil for cheap and use any USB-C PD power supply and customize it to be exactly how you want.

I looked at the Pinecil and the T100. Not a fan of having controls on the handle honestly. It makes it easy to change settings accidentally.

Also they're probably best for delicate jobs. Not sure about heavier duty stuff.

If I were doing field repairs I'd definitely get one though.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

At this point, the odds are that my Weller will outlive me.

 

[RandomEar]

Thanks for the links!

I read the badcaps thread and it covers the same ground as the ones I read yesterday on eevblog. Interestingly, both are driven almost singlehandedly by the same tony359 guy.

I don't doubt tony359 is experiencing the issues he describes at length. Due to the lack of corroboration from the community, however (and the T3A is apparently a very popular unit, so logic dictates that many users would be complaining about the same issues), Occam's razor says tony359 is the unlucky recipient of either a defective unit or a defective handle.

In that case, why can't a guy like him who runs a YouTube repair channel just take the thing apart and diagnose it instead of bitching about it on forums? It's not like a soldering station is a bafflingly advanced device, and besides it would make for a good video.

Maybe he should send it to Mend It Mark to get an expert opinion

From what I understood in the thread & video, there was another youtuber who replicated the issue and got the tip of his iron to glow. Sadly, the link to the video demonstrating that is dead. The description of the issue (only happens on specific joints and only when grounded) and the fact that Aixun issued a firmware update that hides the true temperature reading to sweep the problem under the rug also lead me to believe that this is a problem of the station itself. But as long as one is aware of the issue, the station should perform well.

 

[devinplombier]

My uneducated guess is that there was an issue with early hardware, corrected in a later revision. It would explain why a bunch of folks on eevblog tried and failed to replicate tony359's issue.

Still, I don't understand the guy. Judging from the sheer volume of his posts, he spent dozens of hours whining about the T3A instead of trying to fix it, despite the fact that he owns a YouTube electronics repair channel. Why not? A T3A is hardly a nuclear power plant, and it would have made a good video for his channel.

And then, in the end he gives up and gets a genuine JBC station. I don't know about you guys, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

 

[mhardy6647]

At this point, the odds are that my Weller will outlive me.

I have my father's Weller soldering iron (station) and two Weller guns - one of which probably dates to the late 1950s.

To the OP's query. Consider a Metcal inductive soldering station. Pricey new, but my understanding is that there's a reasonable used Metcal market.

Soldering/Desoldering | METCAL EN-US

Buy METCAL Soldering/Desoldering from EN-US Shop

store.metcal.com

 

[devinplombier]

So I ordered a T3A from Aliexpress on Feb 14, to be delivered Feb 28 - Mar 4, but the second I placed the order the expected delivery date jumped to Mar 7.

I was not too happy about that, but as it turns out it was delivered today! So, it took 8 days total from Shenzhen to my doorstep. That was pretty good! Parts Express is often slower than that.

I unpacked the unit, and everything looks and feels pretty good. Nice silicone handle cord, the base unit feels substantial, the packaging is well-designed. Pretty happy so far! I'll spend some quality time with it next week, we'll see how well it works

 

[Doodski]

So I ordered a T3A from Aliexpress on Feb 14, to be delivered Feb 28 - Mar 4, but the second I placed the order the expected delivery date jumped to Mar 7.

I was not too happy about that, but as it turns out it was delivered today! So, it took 8 days total from Shenzhen to my doorstep. That was pretty good! Parts Express is often slower than that.

I unpacked the unit, and everything looks and feels pretty good. Nice silicone handle cord, the base unit feels substantial, the packaging is well-designed. Pretty happy so far! I'll spend some quality time with it next week, we'll see how well it works

Let's see if you can lay a bead like stick welding! Hehe...

 

[Wolf]

I use an RoHS approved Blackjack Solderwerks digital station. Make sure you get a pen tip and a chisel tip.

I have a Hakko 599 holder/cleaner with a brass scrubber sitting on top. I glued 4 small Neo magnets to the top of the BJSW, as the bolder is magnetic. It just makes it easier to store.