desoldering station?

[Alex555]

Does anybody know of a decent hot air desoldering station or the type with a vacuum pump? I receive tons of dead vcrs and such that have a lot of useful parts, but getting them off with a normal soldering iron is difficult and slow. I only get through hole parts, at least for now, and around $100 would be ideal.

[aussienick]

For me the absolute tool for desoldering with hot air is the Atten 858D+. You can find it at ebay for about $50-70.

[Alex555]

I saw lots of those and figured they were to good to be true. I will order one once I return my hot air gun I tried to desolder with. What setting do you use for through hole parts? Also, is there a similar one that runs on 120 volts or can it be switched?

[arhi]

I have ZD-915 it's the cheapest desoldering station I could get locally (~70$) and it works like a charm .. whatever you get it will 99.9% work and if it dies you can cheaply fix it as it's psu that is the weak link. With zd-915 I got 4 different nozzles and 3 rods for cleaning it up + some filters .. I had a chance to use ERSA, DENON, PACE desoldering guns and while they look "nicer" they don't really work any better then this el-cheapo PRC device

As for the HEAT GUN, I use some QUICK knockoff of the hakko, I tried many hakko copies and they all work like a charm.

I personally prefer the HEAT GUN with the compressor and not the one with the fan embedded in the handle. I tried using them and for me that just does not work .. I can't say if it's the flow of air or the big handle or .. donno, I just dislike them, I feel weird using them (I have to admit having only a small cord is nice compared to fat cord my quick has)

[bearmos]

i use a hakko hot air tool at work (~$800) and an atten equivalent (rebranded by circuit specialists) I use at home ($100). I prefer the generic one. It has digital air-flow control, so it will automatically adjust airflow to full-on on cool down in an attempt to make the heating element last a little longer

seconding what ahri said, I would go for a hot-air station without a fan in the handle (they're more awkward).

If you'll be doing a lot of through hold rework, money spent on a "proper" rework station is well spent (proper meaning something other than the $3 solder suckers). The one ahri posted looks great for the price. I've only really used a pretty expensive PACE unit with an external vac - it's a great setup, but there's more money in it than I have in my entire home workshop...

[arhi]

btw wrt parts from "dead vcrs", 99% of those parts are PTH so a proper desoldering station is much better solution then a hot air. Hot air is required for SMD parts but 99% of SMD parts on a VCR board is either custom stuff you can't use for shit or is a "noname/nobrand/nofunctionality" part you can only throw away .. while whole bunch of useful PTH stuff can be found (memory, cpu, analog stuff...) and you do not want to lift those with hot air ..

[Alex555]

Actually, you would be surprised how many smd 74fxx and 74hcxx parts are on motherboards and things. I also found I have a board with military precision resistors from '87. So hot air will not work for through-hole components?

[arhi]

Actually, you would be surprised how many smd 74fxx and 74hcxx parts are on motherboards and things. I also found I have a board with military precision resistors from '87. So hot air will not work for through-hole components?

Hot air will most likely kill PTH components before you can get them off.. especially large ones

[Alex555]

So then are there any good but inexpensive desoldering stations that use a vacuum pump?

[arhi]

I said I use zd-915 and I'm satisfied with it... and it's super cheap .. so get something like that

[Sjaak]

i got the ayoe 968 rework station. It is a cheap all-in one solution if you also looking for a nice solderingstation. it was around 100 eur. See our review here: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Dan ... rk_station

Just as arhi/bearmos says get the cheapest one, as the expensive ones are pretty much comparable to the cheap ones (perhaps if you use it 24/7 it is different ;))

[Alex555]

I must have missed what you said, Arhi. That station looks great. Can I order from the linked site? And that will hopefully leave me with $50 left over. Would there be any hot air guns for that price but not crap? Or are there any combination hot air gun/ vacuum pump type desoldering stations?

[arhi]

I didn't get me that station 'cause it's best but 'cause it was the only cheep desoldering station I could get locally (ordering online is kinda big hassle from here, especially for heavy stuff). I never seen combo of heat gun and desoldering station but I see no reason for them not to exist :D... check out your local stores (you did not enter your location btw) and check ebay .. this technology is old so el cheapo desoldering stations will all work ok, even the cheapest ones .. and if they break they are easily repairable..

[Alex555]

I am in the US and online ordering is not a problem, but buying locally is. My two choices are Radioshack, which only has a cheapy ten dollar desoldering iron with the little red thing which I would like to upgrade from, and Fry's electronics which I have already searched. I shall peruse ebay once more, are there anythings I should definately watch out for?

[arhi]

main difference between desoldering stations is if they use transformer or smps power supply. the transformer ones are heavier but there's less stuff to go wrong with them .. the smps variants use el-cheapo parts in the smps so you can end up changing caps after few months but that's not a big deal (you source good low esr caps from digikey and replace them and it magically starts working again) ..

for e.g. great option I found on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Aoyue-474A- ... 1c2db8b823

also if you need a decent soldering iron too then a combo is great:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-New-Solder-De ... 27c758b30b


Aoyue is one of the best PRC clone makers ... they actually do their own systems now, they started with cloning hakko but now they make their own systems too and they make them good.. they also make tips that are very decent .. so I can safely recommend it, they also sell spare parts so heaters, tips etc .. are something you can find online

Now notice that cheap you can find stuff like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/220V-30W-50Hz-A ... 3a7a80069c

some ppl like it but I hate that form factor and find it very hard to work for, especially this cheap ones ... I suggest getting proper "gun" like the Aoyue from the link I provided