[Boatanchors] Once More About Desoldering

[WA1KBQ at aol.com]

A number of folks have asked me for more information about the desoldering 
guns I wrote about earlier so the following is an attempt to answer. My first 
desoldering equipment was a fully self contained Pace desoldering station. I do 
not remember the model number and it is packed away in a box upstairs at the 
moment. It was picked up several years ago at Dayton from a vendor who had 
several of them for sale at the time for $100 each. He said he was operating as a 
home based business where he would acquire them as used surplus from local 
industry and would go through them and get everything in proper order again for 
resale. He said he stocked replacement parts for Pace equipment and he highly 
recommended and stood behind Pace. I knew I was in the market for some kind of 
desoldering equipment because of the volume of point to point wiring 
disassembly/reassembly I often get involved with here and I knew there had to be a 
better way then trying to keep the solder molten while I fumble around using 
various picks and pliers trying to get four or five wire leads untangled from a 
terminal lug without overheating everything in the process. From what I 
understand there are many different models and levels of Pace Desoldering Stations and 
they are considered to be the industry leader in that type of equipment; they 
are made for and marketed to industrial manufacturers repair and maintenance 
facilities. Normally new Pace equipment would be priced above the reach of all 
but the most well heeled BA hobbyists but the seller I met at Dayton selling 
them for $100 provided me with the opportunity to get my first one. My only 
complaint with the Pace station is it is a large, rather involved contraption 
(having both a desoldering iron and a soldering iron) with cords and cables all 
over the place taking up a lot of bench space and it is triggered with a foot 
pedal. Since then I acquired the Goot TP-100 and Hakko 808 desoldering guns and 
they just seemed to be a lot more convenient to use for me. I don't have room 
to leave a big commercial grade desoldering station set up on the bench here 
all the time and it is just more convenient to go fetch the desoldering gun 
from the drawer when it is needed. Radio Shack used to have the Goot in their 
catalog for $369 but I don't know if that is still the case. I found a new one 
on the "Bay" for less than $100 once by doing a "desoldering gun" search there. 
The Hakko 808 is a near copy of the Goot and can be found for less than $200 
by doing an Internet search for a supplier. There is a seller also on the 
"Bay" selling new in the box Hakko 808s for $169 from time to time but I think you 
can find them for close to that price at a standard supplier. Both the Hakko 
and Goot are well designed and easy to use. They have sufficient heat source 
for BA work and the heat is adjustable. The vacuum pumps are trigger controlled 
continuous, and the dross chambers and filters are easy to empty and clean. 
They are the size of a small Weller soldering gun and the business end is small 
enough to easily get in most tight places; the tip orifice size is selectable.

Regards, Greg Gore; WA1KBQ