Help me choose a soldering iron

[Cornelius]

I've been doing occasional soldering for a few years now with a cheap iron I got at Ax-Man (a local surplus store). Mostly stuff like cap replacement or other misc. repair stuff. Most recently I put a fuse holder in a Sega CD model 1.

So the other day my wife's DS Lite stopped working and it appears to be one of the surface mount fuses that's the problem. I don't think I'll be able to do the replacement with the giant tip on my current soldering iron, plus I gather there are overheating and static issues to consider. So I'm thinking about upgrading. I'll still only really use it occasionally, so I don't need to go nuts. I know we've got some pros on here that have probably used a lot of equipment, so what say you?

I saw this recommended elsewhere (http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7307).

Also, I've just been using some rosin core solder from home depot, do I need something else for this DS Lite job?

[FABombjoy]

This is probably one of the most common yet difficult to answer questions.

For people that are going to use their irons on a regular basis, I typically recommend a temperature controlled iron, not one rated solely in watts, or one with an adjustment with numbers.

In the case of the iron that you've posted, that is a very cheap price for an iron that appears to be temperature controlled. The only thing you can go on is anectodal evidence presented by people that have actually used it.

I have a basic model professional Weller iron, purchased at a yard sale about 8 years ago. As an example of it's quality, I put on a new tip when I bought it, and I'm still using the same tip today. It goes from 0 to hot in seconds and the temperature is very stable. A cheap iron tends to bounce up and down temperature wise, so sometimes the solder will melt and then go back to a semi-plastic state, forcing you to hold the iron in place while you heat up the surrounding material enough for the solder to melt again. That is a frustrating experience that produces really awful joints if you're not careful.

Hakko is another brand that I have experience with and have been happy with the quality. I have the 808 desoldering gun and it has been a truly life altering purchase. I also have a Hakko battery powered iron that has worked very well for field repairs considering how inexpensive it was.

I've bought enough tools over the years to know where you can go cheap, and where you can go expensive. I do a lot of soldering, so my preference is to have a quality iron since it's a "heavy lifting" tool. My rule of thumb is that the more complicated the tool, the better quality it should be.

$25 isn't a lot of money, so if you're not doing tons of work it might be worth a gamble.

Something to keep in mind with the DS is that it uses lead-free solder. I don't know if there have been any long term studies on mixing leaded with unleaded solder. I do know that reworking lead-free totally sucks since the joints always look bad and you've got to have your iron hotter for it to melt. I helped a friend replace some caps on a DVD player & used lead solder to make the repairs. So far, so good. Everything that I work with is old enough that it doesn't use lead-free, so I don't have a lot of experience in this area yet.

Solder from the Home Depot, as long as it's appropriate for electronics (i.e. not plumbing) should be just fine. The flux should be rosin, not acid.

This may or may not answer your questions, but hopefully it gets you thinking

[DogP]

That Circuit Specialists one should work fine for you... that's most likely the standard Hakko knock off, which I've found to be quite comparable to an actual Hakko.

I personally own a Hakko 936, Aoyue 908 (Hakko knockoff), and a Weller WES51 (as well as a few other non-standard irons like a micropoint, desoldering tweezers, desoldering gun, etc). The Hakko is definitely my favorite, but the Aoyue is a close second (and I use the Aoyue the most, since it's a large soldering station, I leave it on my workbench).

This one: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9672 has also gotten good reviews... but most likely is the same thing, but just a slightly different style case. If you look at Circuit Specialists soldering stuff, they all seem to have different style cases than most knock-offs... I remember a few years ago they were selling some of the standard Hakko looking knock-offs, and someone asked about the compatibility between those and a real Hakko... apparently they didn't realize the design was totally ripped off, so they clearanced off all of that style and went with their own style case, to prevent confusion.

Regarding solder... yeah, as long as the solder is fine enough, and rosin core, you should be good. You could also go to Radio Shack and pick some up if you needed to. The fine stuff is easier for soldering small components (0.022 or smaller, though 0.032 should work fine as well). I personally wouldn't use the large stuff... like 0.062. The silver bearing solder also solders really nicely, but regular stuff should work well enough.

DogP

[jordandavid]

I saw this recommended elsewhere (http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7307).

I only do some very light soldering with a $15 Weller, but that looks like one hell of a deal.

[Cornelius]

Just an update: I got that iron I linked to in the first post and it came recently. Seems to be of solid build quality, though I haven't used it yet. I'm waiting on fuses from Hong Kong to fix the DS with, and no other projects have come up yet. I'll update when I get a chance to use it on something.