If you’re not a techie/electronics geek, you can probably skip this one.
After attempting yet another soldering project where my 12-watt, tiny-tipped Weller iron just wasn’t enough and my who-knows-what-watt Radio Shack iron from a previous generation seemed like it might be a bit too much, I decided it might be time to move on to a better soldering tool, especially in these days of learning to solder/unsolder surface-mount devices – YIKES!
I used to do a LOT of soldering using a temperature-controlled iron (Metcal, Weller) in the electronics shop I worked at while in college, and I never had a complaint about the soldering equipment. I guess there was a reason for that – it was a lot better than what I have today (of course, back then everything was through-hole circuit design too, and you could actually see the parts you were working on without a microscope…).
So, off I went to the web to see what kind of a value I could find on a decent, temperature-controlled station, and I wound up here with the Xytronic 379. It gets great comments all over the web from people that own it, it seems like it might be nicer than the comparably-priced low-end Weller, and it’s cheaper than the low-end Hakko.
I ordered it using a ‘discount code’ I found in another forum (post #15). That gave me a slight discount – then when the order was actually processed and the invoice arrived via email, it turned out that Howard charged me even less, for whatever reason. I wasn’t going to complain – I got the whole thing for just over $51 shipped. Not bad at all.
So if you’re looking to feed your inner soldering geek, you probably can’t go wrong with this station. With the temp dial set at around the midpoint, about 650° F, the thing goes from power-off to melting solder in less than five seconds. Try that with your Radio Shack iron…
Incidentally, if you’re looking on info and/or help on soldering and desoldering SMD components, there’s a lot of good info and videos over at Curious Inventor. For desoldering, that Chip Quik stuff is particularly cool (see demo), and it’s available at Fry’s.
P.S. – I looked at the digital readout station that Radio Shack is selling for $40, but most of the commenters on the web complained that they couldn’t find replacement tips for it.
Update: I’d seen mentions on the web that Hakko tips would fit the 379 iron. That would be convenient, as it’s probably easier to find the Hakko tips than the Xytronic brand – for example, there are a lot more Hakko tips available on eBay (at decent prices), and places like Fry’s would be much more likely to have Hakko tips. Since the blurbs I’d seen hadn’t been specific as to which Hakko tips would fit the 379, I did a little bit of research to compare sizes and such, and determined that the Hakko 900M series of tips looked to be almost exactly the same as the tip on the Xytronic iron. I ordered a few of the 900M tips off eBay to give it a try, and they seem to fit the iron perfectly. So there ya go.
Recent Comments