[Elecraft] Soldering station

[Anthony Luscre K8ZT]

My order arrived yesterday but the soldering station was back ordered. 
There were items in stock (according to web site) when I ordered mine.
By the way the free gift VOM Multimeter (when you order $50 of stuff) is 
very nice, big digits, nonslip rubber housing, etc.
Anthony


redmen1969 at optonline.net wrote:

>Mike and all,
>
> Thanks for the heads up, Mike.  I'm wondering if anyone has ordered and received the Circuit Specialists soldering stations which looked like Hakko 936's ?  If so could they give us a similar report on that unit?  
>
>At $35.00 it is indeed a tempting buy, but with Mike's post...?
>
>Thanks,
>Tom McCulloch, WB2QDG
>k2 1103
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: w8ur at flatsurface.com (Mike S)
>Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2004 10:53 pm
>Subject: [Elecraft] Soldering station
>
>  
>
>>(this is a resend to the list, the first was bounced by QTH.net 
>>because their postmaster has some brain-dead SMTP spam checking 
>>misconfiguration which produces false positives (for the subject 
>>line "Circuit Specialists 701 rework station:. Grrrrr.)
>>
>>About a week ago, Tom Hammond pointed out that Circuit Specialists 
>>had some soldering stations which looked like Hakko 936's ( 
>>http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7307 ) for a 
>>good price. I noticed that they had a through hole rework station 
>>( http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7789 ) which 
>>also looked very similar to a Hakko offering. There has been some 
>>conjecture that these are the same as the Hakko units, but are 
>>being sold by an OEM to Hakko for considerably less.
>>
>>Since my 20 year old Pace desoldering station recently died, I 
>>thought I'd try out one of these, especially since the $200 price 
>>was by far better than anything else available. This is about 20% 
>>of what a similar Hakko unit runs.
>>
>>I receive my station today, and can report that these are very 
>>obviously NOT the same as real Hakko products. They're Chinese 
>>clones. As mentioned earlier, these are made by Aoyue ( 
>>http://www.aoyue.com/english/index.htm ). From the looks of this 
>>unit, I doubt Aoyue OEMs anything to Hakko - some things are 
>>close, others are functional, but none are of the same quality.
>>
>>The desoldering handpiece is of decent quality. It appears that it 
>>will take Hakko spares, including heaters and tips. It could 
>>definitely use a better tip - this one is chrome (?) plated and 
>>won't "tin." The soldering pencil has a rubber grip instead of the 
>>heat insulating foam a real Hakko has, but is overall of decent 
>>quality. Both use multipin "microphone" style circular connectors, 
>>which is different than what Hakko uses.
>>
>>The station itself is workable, the electronics seem to do what 
>>they're supposed to (they regulate tip temperature and have an LED 
>>which lights when power is applied to the tip, so it blinks when 
>>the tip is at the set temp). The controls (switches and pots) are 
>>pretty cheap, I'll probably upgrade these. They silk screened 
>>"Circuit Specialists" on the front, but didn't bother with a 
>>Fahrenheit temperature scale. The manufacturer took time to grind 
>>the markings off the ICs on the circuit board (they copied Hakko, 
>>but don't want to be copied themselves, I guess), and no schematic 
>>is provided in the manual.
>>
>>The biggest obvious difference is that it uses a completely 
>>different vacuum pump than a real Hakko - meaning no ready source 
>>of spare parts. The pump  actually works better than that on my 
>>old Pace. One strange thing though, is that the instruction manual 
>>(in pretty good Engrish [ http://www.engrish.com/ ]) clearly shows 
>>how to disassemble and clean a Hakko pump. The actual pump is 
>>completely different than that illustrated in the manual.
>>
>>All things considered, it works well. Time will tell how this unit 
>>holds up, but it seems to be a good deal. A couple of better 
>>quality switches and pots, some real Hakko desoldering tips, and a 
>>bit of time should take care of the minor issues. 
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Elecraft mailing list
>>Post to: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): 
>>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft    
>>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>>
>>    
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft    
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>
>  
>

-- 
|--------------------------|
     Anthony A. Luscre    
            K8ZT      
        Stow, Ohio	  
|--------------------------|
    Visit My Website at
  http://www.k8zt.com
|--------------------------|