What's in a soldering station??

[Basonsubatomia]

I'm tired of my Rat Shack soldering iron. I want something more. Something better. I wanted to get the Circuit Specialists soldering station that a lot of people had good things to say about (about $39.99, seemed like a great deal) and get their free DMM with it, but alas, shipping and/or duties are going to cost me $30 USD because I'm a Canadian... so I got to thinking... do I need a soldering station with a variable temp control? Can I get a 120V rheostat and limit my temperature that way? Is it worth it? Please give a Canuck some soldering advice here...

[Peter Snowberg]

I think active temperature control makes all the difference in the world. There's variable temp control and then there's active temperature control. I would rather use a slightly oversized plain iron in most cases over a temp control done on a reostat or dimmer.

Once you experience active control, all other irons become "for emergency use only"

I would stock up on anything that helps to amortize the shipping costs and just bite the bullet. It's going to be very worth it and you'll thank yourself a thousand times over (like every time you use it!)

take care,
-peter

[travissk]

I have that soldering station (the $40 Xytronics one). Unfortunately, classes have been very hard over the last 6 months so I haven't built anything new, but I've had the chance to use it a couple times and it's very nice.

[Peter Snowberg]

Following the "Church of the 'Groove".....

...I purchased this station:
http://circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7501

It is simply excellent.

If you haven't already, try the 63/37 solder as well:
http://circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/6262

With the Xytronic station and the 63/37 solder, soldering is like waving a magic wand.

Emphasis added by me.

That's the most awesome endorsement I've heard in a long time.

Search for "waving and magic and wand" to get the three page thread about soldering irons that quote came from.

Take care,
-Peter

[ExpAnonColin]

I vote eBay.

I got a 130-150 Xytronics station with active temp control for $50 shipped.  It was used.  I haven't had to replace the tip yet and I've been using it for a while.  Beats the living daylights out of my old RS one.

-Colin

[ErikMiller]

Get in touch with Xytronic themselves. The html on their distributor list is messed up, but they may have a distributor in Canada.

http://www.xytronic-usa.com/

[csj]

I've decided to get one with the simple hope that it'll make it more difficult for me to sit on it.

[Basonsubatomia]

I'll have to check out my local options a bit better as well... hell, I'd settle for local as in Canada. The thing that really sucks is the duties on everything coming across the border. From what I remember, you can't really amortize that, or else I would suck it up and go for it.... damn CS and their free multimeters! Damn damn damn!

[RobB]

I’ve had three or four power controlled soldering irons and now I have a set temperature soldering iron.  It heats up in less than a minute and never gets too hot.  Because I repair electronic devices in the field, I’ve never bothered with a soldering station.  

With miniaturisation of electronics, I’ve sometimes wondered why can’t all the control circuitry be placed inside the handle of the iron?  (Including an LCD display for temperature).  

Has anybody opened up their soldering station?  What’s in there that’s so big it can’t fit into the handle of an iron, (apart from the counter weight for stability)?  

I've decided to get one with the simple hope that it'll make it more difficult for me to sit on it.

I’ve grabbed the wrong end plenty of times while it was still hot but luckily haven’t sat on one(yet).

[petemoore]

I have my irons cord looped over a bench 'upright'  board, about 6 feet high.
 That way when I drop it, or it gets inadvertantly dropped, [and I'm unaware] it doesn't hit the ground or land on a combustible surface and lay there, but dangles under near the floor, away from 'stuff'.

[Peter Snowberg]

Has anybody opened up their soldering station?  What’s in there that’s so big it can’t fit into the handle of an iron, (apart from the counter weight for stability)?

That's a smashingly good idea!

Mine runs from 24 volts so it's always going to take a wall wart to power at the least, but the control circuit is really quite simple. It's just a thermocouple, a pot, and a comparitor. The thermocouple gets lowpass filtered to make the on-off cycles slow (several per second at max). I'll bet there's also a small resistor to add some hysteresis to stop cycling from being too fast. If you don't need a display of the temp, everything should fit easily into the handle. The only question would be about the heat sink for the triac that powers the element. You don't want to cook that item and the end of an iron is not the best place for such things to cool down.

With switching supplies in wall-warts now, it would be fantastic to have an active control station that fits easily in my tool bag.

Take care,
-Peter

[downweverything]

Weller WLC100 is a nice iron with temp control and only costs around $40

[Tubebass]

Where I work, we have just such a beast! It's made by Edsyn, model 930 Loner. It's the nicest iron I've ever used, has a little dial on the handle to set temperature, and as a bonus, the handle is clear polycarbonate so you can see the circuit board and the blinking neon light that tells you it's up to temp. I believe we got 'em from Electro-Sonic in Montreal.

[travissk]

I also forgot to mention that I use the 63/37 solder whenever I can now - great stuff  

[smoguzbenjamin]

I have a Voltcraft digital soldering station. Super-accurate temperature control to an accuracy of 1 degree Celcius. I have no idea what it's worth but I'll bet it ain't cheap. It's the best, Even with normal 60/40 solder, making a pedal is a breeze and cold solder joints are a thing of the past.

Yup, it rules to have a good soldering station.