Recommendations for soldering iron

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robthemac
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Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by robthemac »

I've got a couple of cables that I need to make so am going to put on my big boy pants and learn to solder. Not planning on doing any amps/pedals at this stage. Any recommendations for an iron? Electric or butane? How powerful? Any meaningful difference in cheap v expensive irons or solder?
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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by sizzlingbadger »

Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by Miza »

Funny, I was trawling through the NZG archive just the other day trying to find a thread on this exact topic.
From what I found, someone on here recommended this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3292167 ... kRTeV&mp=1
It's on my "to buy" list.

My last one was one of these https://www.jaycar.co.nz/20-130w-turbo- ... n/p/TS1554 which was fine for cables, but no good for anything too delicate. It since died. Hence the search for something better.
Nothing to see here.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by Candeevr4 »

I have this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3248582 ... 4c4dMxsED0

prob overkill for what you want though!

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by Michael »

I bought one of these based on Reddit recommendations and have been happy with it. There are different versions of it on their store, I have no idea what the differences are.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by StratMatt »

I bought this one and have found soldering things much easier.

https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/product/2 ... on-30w-60w
Loving it so far

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by StrummersOfThunder »

My reccommendation, hold the cold end.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by RectifiedAmps »

I used to have one of those cheap 48W Duratech stations with the adjustable temperature. It was solid and worked well for most jobs. It never failed but I replaced it mainly because it took about 5 minutes to warm up and replacement tips were hard to find since they weren’t a standard size.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by JustMatt »

If anyone is after a more serious option I 100% recommend the Hakko 888D solder station which is about $200 from Synergy Electronics.

It is definitely a future proof option if you think you may use it a bit over the years.

We have three setup for most of our work.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by bluesierra »

Timely. I really need to learn to solder, and do setups.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by jeremyb »

I have a chinese hakko copy and its bloody brilliant, heats up in a few seconds and has digital readout for temperature, would trade again.
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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by sizzlingbadger »

My 25yr old Weller PS3D is still going strong.
Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by griff »

Not sure if its worth mentioning.. but go for 60/40 solder if you can. Lower melting point, less chance of damaging components.

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Re: Recommendations for soldering iron

Post by NippleWrestler »

I've made about 150 pedals with a 40w Jaycar iron. Just keep the tip clean and healthy, get the technique down and any functional iron should last you for years.

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