Which soldering iron?

Need to do some soldering on a guitar, so I need to purchase a soldering iron. The first one that sprang to mind  was a weller soldering station, but 150+ quid seems a bit excessive for something I will probably only use once every 5 years. On the other hand I don’t want cheap crap that is going to damage the components I am fitting or make the job harder.

Anyone got a recommendation for a reasonably priced but still decent quality soldering station?

I have the Draper station from Amazon for guitar work including pedals. Just got another after the first one died (after about 2 years). I nearly replaced it with a Weller as I hate uneccessary landfill/wastage, but on reflection it worked fine and did a lot of graft for about 1/6th of the price.

I recently replaced my 25 year old Antex one (nothing wrong with it!!) with a TS80P which is a soldering iron for the digital generation! Loads of cool features including really easily swappable tips, and heats up WAY faster. Plus can be run off a battery if you need. I doubt it’ll last as long as the Antex tho!

https: //www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09XHGV5GZ/ref=pe_27063361_485629781_TE_item

good price too, currently about £15 cheaper than I paid!

Note that if you intend to solder to a trem claw or grounds to the back of pots that you probably need an iron closer to 40W than you would use for small components, ideally with a large chisel tip to get the heat into the area fast.

Pinecil.

Brilliant, very capable, easy to use and cheap.

Review

https://www.theverge.com/23541478/pinecil-best-cheap-soldering-iron-open-source

Get it from here.

https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-soldering-iron/

Something properly thermostatted and controllable, is my main thing. It makes so much difference, and it’s one of those unfair things where it makes it easier for learners while experienced people can usually get good results with any old crap. You don’t have to spend a fortune though, I can’t find teh exact one I have online now (old model I guess) but it was about £50.

Hot air can be really useful too, I probbaly use the air gun on mine more than the iron. “rework station” is a good search term if you want that.

I got a great rechargeable one from Lidl, heat’s up really quickly, really convenient to use.

Northwind +1

Mines a cheap ~£25 one off Amazon I think from some unknown Chinese brand and it’s OK for most stuff. I had a £600 JBC station at work and the tips each cost more each than my home station. It was better, and easier to do a good job with it because it was higher power and the tips were physically larger pieces of metal so the temperature was more consistent when actually soldering. But the one at home still does the job.

After my last cheapo soldering iron fell to bits I decided to buy the Pinecil (similar concept to the TS80 I think) and I agree it’s a great tool. Tiny, but will do 65W if you use it with the recommended high power USB C supply. Heats up instantly, easy to adjust the temperature and great for fiddly stuff and getting into awkward corners because it is so small and light. I wish I’d bought something like this years ago.

Just bought a cheapo USB-C kit from AliExpress for £10 delivered – we’ll see if it works!!

Have a look on Marketplace etc… for a Metcal one. It’s night and day difference with anything else I’ve used previously.

I have one of these for occaisional use, seems to work fine.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/soldering-stations/1611962?gb=s

The one I bought off AliExpress arrived yesterday.

For what I need it for (occasionally soldering pins onto ESP8226 boards it’s amazing. Heats up in 30 seconds (with a digital temp display showing what’s going on) and you can alter the temperature easily.

Came in a decent box too.  £10 Inc delivery…. Bonkers!!

Do we suppose that display is reliable?  I’m tempted myself if so.  My school-issue Antex is probably 40 years old (because it was, ahem, school issued in the first place).

The fake FCC & CE marks just scream quality 🙂

The fake FCC & CE marks just scream quality 🙂

Absolutely agree, but it charges, heats very quickly, seems adjustable* and actually allows me to quickly solder stuff on the occasion that I’d like to.

Sooo….

* I started at an indicated 300c and the solder didn’t melt, changed it to 380c and the solder melted immediately. So something seemed to change.

https://cpc.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/mp740842-uk/soldering-station-lcd-with-holder/dp/SD02937

Picked up one of these the other week. Actually quite impressed with it. Good thing buying from Farnell is they sell the replacement tips and other soldering essentials at very competitive prices. For guitar work maybe need a higher wattage iron?

Don’t forget the burn ointment. It’s standard procedure that you manage to burn yourself either with the iron or the solder

@sharkbait was doing some digging and thought this may be useful if you ever need new tips

About a low-cost USB-C rechargeable 8 watt soldering iron found on aliexpress (May 2024) with "JBC style" tip
byu/wb0gaz insoldering