[sdiy] Vacuum Desoldering Station

[Cary Roberts]

>The design of that desoldering station is weird. You have a pump and
>heat so why not make it a hot air station? I don't recommend buying
>it.

Because a good vacuum pump doesn't make a very good hot air station?  

>Look into an Aoyue 968 (hot air, soldering station, vacuum pickup
>tool) or 850A (hot air only). There is also the 906 model, which has
>air + vacuum but no digital temp readout or vacuum indicator
>(dealbreakers for me). The irons on these things are of poor quality,
>so have a reliable iron handy.


Every Aoyue product I've seen is unusable.  I consider them a waste of
several hundred dollars.  For just a little more money than a Aoyue you can
pick up a quality used name brand station off ebay.  Spend $20-50 on
consumables (vacuum chamber, tips, filter) and you have a top notch reliable
station.  There was nothing I could do to make the Aoyue units usable short
of throwing it all out and starting from scratch.  What's most
dissappointing is that a little more effort in tooling and design and Aoyue
could have a competitive product.

-Cary