Cheap Solder Station Woes

[SnakeyJ]

I always buy Antex irons - never had one fail yet and on of mine has been in very solid use doing home projects for about 30 years (including the dreadful Maplin 5600S Sythesizer if anyone remembers that monster !! and that was a LOT of soldering) and its still on its original tip as well. I don't do enough work at home to invest in a temp controlled system but if I was buying it would be Antex every time - had a couple of Wellers over the years and they all went bang sooner or later including one Weller solder station which was used professionally.

Thanks Mel, I'll take a look at the Antex on your and Gina's recommendation. Interesting experience on the Weller's,- when they are good they seem a tool for life, but some definitely aren't so good.

[Astro_Baby]

Note - Antex irons are seldom cheap (relative to what you are getting)  and when they arrive they do look very plastic almost like a toy in fact but you can buy direct from Antex and they are easy to deal with, reliable - we had one lost in the post and they replaced it with no bother.

If your buying get a stand and the sponge as well - solder tips should be cared for by tinning them before use and keeping the tip clean while working by giving it a wipe on the sponge frequently.  I have a pack of tips which I have never used cos none of the irons have ever needed their tips replacing - oh and dont use a file to clean a tip.  I have seen someone do that when I was in production cos thats what their grandad told them.  That might have been true while working in Bairds lab circa 1922 but modern tips don't like it at all

[Gina]

The older tips used to be plain copper and the copper would react with the solder and form a hollow.  After a while the tip was filed down to provide a new flat surface.  Modern tips are plated with an inert material which doesn't produce a hollow and only cleaning is needed.  A damp foam pad is used for this.

[SnakeyJ]

I got the replacement soldering iron from the Ebay vendor on Wednesday.     The deal was that I didn't have to return the old unit, but I did pay another £10 for the courier of the replacement.    I figured worst case this would leave me with spare tips and wand.

However, this gave me the chance to disassemble the original control unit and wand to locate the fault - a simple short due to poor installation of the heater element.    Using the new iron, I've properly fitted the heater and used a little of the silicon sheath from the wand to prevent any grounding out to the ESD earth (spring around the base of the element).     As there was no short circuit on the transformer, I gave it a very cautious test and all is working correctly.   Though I shall hold this in reserve mainly for the spare parts.

Must say the iron is actually very nice in use and warms up very quickly - the only thing I will change is to get a better stand as the supplied one is a little light and flimsy.