There have been several request of solder, wick and other general supplies.
I for one would like to try a stationless desoldering gun. We are having reliability issues with the Metcals and the shop air is tied to pretty much two work benches.
I’m thinking of these:
Please respond below if you have had any experience with these units.
Also to add to the wish list of basic needs.
Looks pretty nice,
I haven’t used this particular gun, but the key feature I have found is that it is easy to clean up. The pinball machines tend to make large solder rods when using guns to desolder so you end up having to empty the gun every 5 to 8 uses. This unit seems to clean up very easilly, with the trash chamber being easily removable while the gun is still hot.
Found a little review:
I’ve heard and seen YouTube that the all-in-ones are pretty lacking.
Here’s the one I’m considering, which a friend recently purchased and thinks is a good unit so far:
Based on the abuse that the lab equipment gets, seems like the right price range.
I’m worried the Hakko is a bit big and clunky but I don’t want a base station to have to move too. Unless we eventually have one at each bench so there is no need to move stuff around.
Easy to clean up, but keeping it cleaned up is absolutely CRITICAL to it working well.
You would also want a variety of tip sizes. When I was using this one I think we had some trouble getting a truly large diameter tip, so some of those really beefy pins may not work on it.
*Oh, remembering now, it was not perfect for desoldering 1/4" jacks from a PCB due to the large tab-like pins, but we did get it to work. --and it cleaned up the holes nicely once the part was gone.
I have an older model Hakko 808 desoldering gun and it works well for board repairs and is fairly easy to keep clean and do basic essential maintenance on. Order spare filters, and the metal solder catch plate that fits inside the removable chamber. The model FR300 is the newer replacement to the model 808 that I have. One recommendation I would have is to make sure you get the stand and an assortment of tips. 1.0mm and 1.6mm are the most useful for most of the boardwork I have done. I generally use the 1.6mm when replacing 1.56 machine pin headers on pinball and arcade boards.