- Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:39 am
#5735
I have owned many soldering irons throughout the years, mostly radio shack firestarters. My current favorite is a butane powered cordless as it lets me (despite all reason) solder in bed or on the couch watching TV. I am starting to recognize this is not a suitable tool for any precision (SMD) or even decent normal sized work.
in any case, I don't own a "real" soldering iron and am thinking it might be time to just get one. I am considering the sunkko 8502 sold here with the soldering and rework nozzles both. I was wondering if people thougcht that would be a 'good' first real soldering iron.
Also, could people give examples of what the hot air rework part of the iron is used for? I have never used such a tool and am curious what the common uses of it are. (other than shrinking heat shrink tubing
Can it be used to solder parts in the first place? like putting solder paste down and placing a SMD device down and giving it a blast? or is it only useful for 'de-soldering' things?
Also, when it says it is variable temperature, does that mean you can just adjust the wattage going through the iron, or does it activly compensate for how fast the heat is dissipating depending on what you are soldering? (that would be a huge improvement over my radio shack specials!)
Also, how long can I expect this tool to last? is it something I just need to buy once in my life or is it the type of thing you replace every n years due to wear/tear/shame at having an outdated model?
in any case, I don't own a "real" soldering iron and am thinking it might be time to just get one. I am considering the sunkko 8502 sold here with the soldering and rework nozzles both. I was wondering if people thougcht that would be a 'good' first real soldering iron.
Also, could people give examples of what the hot air rework part of the iron is used for? I have never used such a tool and am curious what the common uses of it are. (other than shrinking heat shrink tubing
Can it be used to solder parts in the first place? like putting solder paste down and placing a SMD device down and giving it a blast? or is it only useful for 'de-soldering' things?
Also, when it says it is variable temperature, does that mean you can just adjust the wattage going through the iron, or does it activly compensate for how fast the heat is dissipating depending on what you are soldering? (that would be a huge improvement over my radio shack specials!)
Also, how long can I expect this tool to last? is it something I just need to buy once in my life or is it the type of thing you replace every n years due to wear/tear/shame at having an outdated model?