[Boatanchors] Soldering Station Advice

[Rob Atkinson]

At the indianapolis hamfest last month there was this one guy with a bin
full of Weller soldering stations and he wanted $5 each for them.  I bought
one (you went through them to find ones with good looking tips) and if I had
it to do over again I would have bought about 4 or 5 of them.

73

Rob
K5UJ

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Rod Hogg <revcom at wbsnet.org> wrote:

> We've been down this road before on soldering irons/stations.  Note of
> experience we use a Weller WTCP fixed wattage station and the PTA7 tips on
> bench here at shop.  Have two of these, are on at around 9AM and off at 7PM
> Mon-Sat.  Tips last several months, main thing, keep them clean and flooded
> with fresh solder regularly.  Had one station finally fail, out fault
> didn't
> notice the short in secondary wiring soon enough, it lasted 22 years!
> Current unit WTCPS is 10-15+ years old.  We have "Bertha" on call for heavy
> stuff, an old Western Electric frame iron, has about a 1/2lb tip.  That
> sucker will hold heat good.
>
> Hakko is good.
>
> A 'sleeper' is the new RadioShack digital station, their sku 64-053, not
> too
> expensive and seems to work real nice.
>
> Rod
> KØEQH
>
>