Recommend a solder/desolder station

[glebert]

Looking to up my solder/desolder game. I've always just used a pen type iron and cheap vacuum desoldering tools or copper braid. I will admit that I am not that great at doing tip maintenance. i am looking at all the options on Amazon and there are so many different options, kind of overwhelming. Would love to have something that can make SMD rework more feasible. Probably looking in the $100-250 range. Any suggestions? Thanks. Greg

edit: One feature that is pretty much a requirement is some sort of auto-shutoff. Hate leaving the house and wondering if I left my iron plugged in.

[Mick Bailey]

Earlier this year I chose to try the T12 system and It's worked out really well. I wouldn't go back to a regular type iron now. I use ChipQuick for SMD and a cheap desolder station for through-hole.

See post #26 here;

https://music-electronics-forum.com/...ng-irons/page2

[glebert]

Mick, that is really cool, but I am way too lazy to make my own. In looking at the reviews of most of the vacuum type desoldering stations or units on Amazon it seems like they don't work that well or don't last that long. I am thinking about going with a combo soldering/hot air station and using the hot air along with a $15 piston type desoldering iron I already have. The desoldering iron doesn't work that great on its own but I think combined with the hot air it could be workable. It is fairly easy to keep cleaned out, too.

[Mick Bailey]

I have a real low-end desolder station. A piece of junk that won't last 5 minutes. What I really need is a pro unit. That's what the reviews tell me. I've done thousands of desolder jobs with this over the years as a full-time repairman and it's been 100% reliable and in use most days over many years of ownership. It only does through-hole, but works just fine so long as the chamber and filters are kept clean.

https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00...SABEgJw_vD_BwE

A review of the generic type here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft50m8UU5WQ

[Helmholtz]

All I need is one of these:
https://uk.farnell.com/edsyn/ss350/d...apullt%20ss350

Most of our design EEs used this exact model. We also had professional Weller desoldering stations, but they were rarely used.
Advantage of the stations is that they free one hand and don't produce kickback, but they need considerable maintenance.
And I feel they take longer to heat up the joint and thus transfer more heat than a good soldering iron.

I've been using my Soldapullt SS350 since around 20 years now. It's so much better than all similar looking solder suckers - I tried and compared many.
Still have a few cheaper ones but don't use them anymore, never liked them.

[glebert]

Got a chance to try out my Yihua hot air/soldering iron tonight. Gotta say the hot air makes desoldering so much easier than an iron. Even a crappy old solder sucker removed every bit of solder on the through hole pot I used it on. Could be just that my old iron is shot

[nosaj]

i bit the bullet to replace my pace which had become unrelieable. I paid a 100 for this just used it today on a QSC rmx850 to replace the gain pots. Easy peasy took long to put the board back in than to replace the pots. now for the supports on the ground plane it was a 2 hand job soldering iron one hand on support and other hand to vacuum up the solder. I like this Everywhere else it was a 180 Circuit specialists have it for a 100.

[Mick Bailey]

The Blackjack unit appears to be the same basic design (if not the same guts internally) as the desolder station I have, though I think the casing and build on the Blackjack is better.

We get ripped off here in the UK. The Blackjack unit is £109.98 ($151.34) from Circuit Specialists EU, based in the UK just a few miles from where I live.