Odp: [sdiy] Soldering station decision

[Roman]

Hi

I have Xytronic 988 soldering/desoldering station. Soldering part consist of
107ESD iron probably used in the XY you mentioned too.
Overall impression - not worth the money spent. Although the smaller
one for 65UKP seems OK.

pros:
- not too long iron from tip to handle (easy to use wih shaky hands)
- heats up in 30 s or so
- cheap tips in garden variety
- it looks cute with this little air pressure meter in the middle
- the handle doesn't get hot, or even warm.
- it does the job

cons:
- cheap far-east design - iron handles are made of bakelite, all looks
kinda like a toy
- tip fits loose on the heater (ceramic), so they have really good contact
only in small area
- temperature regulation isn't fast enough. That can be noticed when soldering
traces thicker than 1mm in thru-hole PCB
- desoldering iron gets stucked easily and cleaning it then is a pain.

well, that's about it

Roman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Trevor Page <t at introspectiv.org>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 9:13 PM
Subject: [sdiy] Soldering station decision


> Hi all,
> 
> The time has come for me to get myself a decent soldering iron station!
> There are two particular models stocked by Rapid Electronics here in the
> UK that I am considering, but having trouble deciding between:
> 
> 1. The Xytronic XY9-60. There is the analogue version which costs 65GBP,
> and the digital one for 80. 
> 
> 2. The old faithful Weller WS81 and WSD81. The analogue WS81 costs
> 150GBP, and of course a little bit more for the digital model. 
> 
> I'm very familiar with the Weller station because I use one at work, and
> I know that I cannot go wrong with this station. The Xytronic, however,
> would probably do exactly what I want but for half the amount of money.
> I've never used a Xytronic, however, and I have no idea how the quality
> compares with the Weller. I know that the method of swapping between
> bits is the same, which is good. The station will probably see fairly
> moderate use, mainly SMD, and I want this thing to last for ages. It's
> important to me that the quality of the iron itself is similar to that
> of the Weller.
> 
> Any opinions on this? Any user reports on the Xytronic products? 
> 
> Regards and many thanks in advance for any advice offered. 
> 
> - Trev
> 
> ---
> 
> introspectiv.org
> 
>