About a month ago I bought a fairly cheap soldering station from sparkfun.com to build a few more prototype OBD-II->WiFi converters. I just built a couple of speakon adapters and thought it might be good to share about this thing with you guys.
The Aoyue Int-2901.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ucts_id=84
The BEST $91 I've ever spent on a soldering iron. Its not just a "turn the knob and guestimate" temperature station. Its actually a heat and hold iron that monitors the temp and adjusts itself to stay on temperature. Plus its 70W and goes from room temp to ready in under 20 seconds (350*C). Even beeps once when its at temp and ready to use.
The iron itself has a short and extremely narrow stem (1/2 as long and almost 1/3 the diameter of a radioshack 30W) and a really nice cord that isn't stiff at all (think of those buttery smooth mic cables that just lay flat). The heating element is built into the tip itself and the handle is sort of just a socket for it. Tips are cheap too at $15. So on the up side, if the element goes you're not out $50+ for a new one. But on the downside if you need a new tip it'll be more than $2.95 and a trip to radioshack.
The iron's stand is also made out of nice heavy metal so it doesn't move from where you place it on your bench. Most .5kg spools should fit nicely in the spool holder.
If anyone here has to rewire guitars or repair cables regularly I highly recommend this thing. The iron is small enough to give you more room to work inside a guitar, hot enough to quickly do pots and large panel-mount speakon tabs with 10ga wire, yet gentle enough to do small stuff, and cheap enough to be worth it.
Solder Station for cheap (review)
I got spoiled on the American Hakko's. We used them at C-Cor for assembly work. I understand they go about $700-$1000 new, and have a digital control base,accurate to within +/- 3 degrees. They'd go from 350 to 700 degrees or so, and had interchangeable tips for a variety of tasks. I was always amazed at how they could easily handle tiny RF chokes, or giant power supply wiring.
We also used the Hakko reflow repair stations that went for $1500 or more. They worked great on low heat surface-mt components.
They pop up on E-bay sometimes, but I'll always remember how an entire skid of them went for $65 at the C-Cor Tipton plant-closing auction. $35000 worth of gear for $65.--->JMS
We also used the Hakko reflow repair stations that went for $1500 or more. They worked great on low heat surface-mt components.
They pop up on E-bay sometimes, but I'll always remember how an entire skid of them went for $65 at the C-Cor Tipton plant-closing auction. $35000 worth of gear for $65.--->JMS