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The Original X-Tronic 3020-XTS • 75W Soldering Iron Station • LED • 2 Helping Hands • Roll of Solder • Brass Sponge w/Cleaning Flux • Wet Sponge • °C/°F Conversion Switch • 10 Minute Sleep Feature!?
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So i'm planning on building my first keyboard pretty soon and I have everything prepared but the soldering iron. I know many of the community will recommend getting the hako soldering iron but I can't justify paying that much for a soldering iron, I already spent so much on my keyboard lol. I saw one on amazon that I thought looked good, but i also want a second opinion about it.
What do you guys think about this Soldering Iron?
I use this: https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE
Cheap, digitally variable temperature, removable tips, and a iron + sponge + sheepie holder. They go on sale every now and then for $45 USD (check Newegg, eBay, and Amazon regularly and you'll find one). I grabbed mine 3 or so years ago, its been thru 5 builds, 8 desoldered board, and a shit ton of tiny toy PBCs for work stuff. Excellent little bugger. The roll thing on the side is jack tho, I ripped mine off.
You can also get a dirt cheap iron with no temp monitoring, but I've found they're much too hot for proper soldering. If you're quick, it's fine. But for a newbie you might have troubles.
Personally I use this one from x-tronic. It wasn't too pricey, but has all of the basic amenities. It's served me well for a couple dozen projects so far.
I've been soldering for 32 years. My wife bought me a solder station when my old Edysn finnaly gave up. I wasn't expecting much. It was an X-tronics station and I had never heard of them. I was very pleasantly surprised! So much so that I got a second one to use at my day job instead of the Pace PRC-2000. I've been using that one for 5 years now in an industrial setting with no faults. I love it.
https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE
I used a butane soldering iron for my first few builds. That being said, a good quality soldering setup makes things much more enjoyable. I bought this one. its only $20 more expensive than the one you're looking at, and its 75 Watts. I've been very happy with it.
I got one question I see that the Hakko fx888d is 100$ in amazon compared to 60$ in Aliexpress. Should I go for the one in Aliexpress or the one in Amazon? Also which type of composition is the best for the solder?
Also I found something similar do you have any experience with this soldering station?
I live in LATM so I use a proxy to bring stuff from the US.
I got one question I see that the Hakko fx888d is 100$ in amazon compared to 60$ in Aliexpress. Should I go for the one in Aliexpress or the one in Amazon? Also which type of composition is the best for the solder?
Also I found something similar do you have any experience with this soldering station?
I live in LATM so I use a proxy to bring stuff from the US.
I got one question I see that the Hakko fx888d is 100$ in amazon compared to 60$ in Aliexpress. Should I go for the one in Aliexpress or the one in Amazon? Also which type of composition is the best for the solder?
Also I found something similar do you have any experience with this soldering station?
I live in LATM so I use a proxy to bring stuff from the US.
That Hakko station is way overkill. Something like this https://www.amazon.ca/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2D9T0A57SXL2O&dchild=1&keywords=xtronic+soldering+station&qid=1599955845&sprefix=xtronic%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-4 would be great. I have soldered dozens of boards with my xtronic and it takes hakko tips.
Yours will probably work just fine (I’d recommend you pick up some desoldering wick and a soldering iron stand if you don’t have them), but there’s actually some pretty reasonably priced ones with temperature control on Amazon. I got this one for about $60, and it seems to work pretty well.
I recently did my first build and used the Xtronic solder station. It worked flawlessly. Was very tempnatable, comfortable to use, and hits a great value price point.
X-Tronic Model #3020-XTS Digital Display Soldering Iron Station - 10 Minute Sleep Function, Auto Cool Down, C/F Switch, Ergonomic Soldering Iron, Solder Holder, Brass Tip Cleaner with Cleaning Flux https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_x232Db22N3N86
I have this iron. It has been pretty good. I would give it a solid 4 stars. It may be a china "knock off" but it has worked great for me. Given that you just want to get started I wouldn't blow your whole budget on just these.
Honestly I would suggest just going with the cheaper stuff for at home. Personally I feel like being a college student most of my stuff is at risk to get trashed and I will never be able to out budget the stuff that is available at a college lab.
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I would spend more money on supplies and have a good selection of components.
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Just my 2 cents
There are plenty of digital irons that don't have convoluted interfaces. The entire purpose of a digital iron is temp. control, not buttons and presets. Companies simply started adding that stuff because the cost is negligible and they get to plaster the box with "additional features".
Analog irons are awful and offer nothing in the way of temperature control.
That said, your Hakko is a phenomenal iron and it sounds like you're the exception rather than the rule as the Hakko FX-888D is probably the best-reviewed soldering iron of all time.
If you want a digital iron a little more your speed, I would recommend the 3020XTS as suggested elsewhere in this thread. For $50, you can't go wrong.
Very true, sorry for my vagueness. I'd rather a temperature controlled one. And actually I had forgotten my minor research prior to posting.
I have come across this soldering iron And I suppose I should have asked if this would be a good choice for switch swapping? Again my apologies,
> Can you recommend an inexpensive soldering iron? I don't wanna a super cheap one but, I probably won't use it enough to justify $100.
Have a look at this one and check out the reviews
https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE/
If you are looking for a good iron this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_XGZKF49NP2ECFKA7TN24 is a good one to start with
Okay.
I'm a big fan of this soldering station, solder, flux, braid, and tip cleaner. I've used these together and they work really well together. Another thing you should need is soldering tips. I learned on and still use cheap ones that cost less than a dollar each, but when learning some don't like these since you can kill them in under a minute if you are not diligent with maintenance. You could get a cheap set or hakko ones.
Make sure you study up on soldering electronics properly as it does not come naturally and most cannot solder a good joint for awhile after starting to learn. For any questions there's a ton of people on this subreddit that can help.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0149K4JTY
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00425FUW2
Just say no to big bulky solder guns. Those are for commercial wiring jobs in buildings, not for delicate things like guitar wiring. For the same money (or less) you can pick up a nice Hakko FX888D on Amazon, or for less you can get this decent little xtronic, or one of those neat little knockoff Hakko T12 units
I multi-use em as needed, when my usual gum-trimmers are out of reach.
Would you say something like this works, or is it still pricey? https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE I'm just a fan of the station as I have really bad OCD and need stuff to be organized
My recommendation would be this soldering station, which is currently $55:
https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE/
I'm looking at this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_RH8M3J457VRFPHJZFCXF has anyone actually use it?
It's super easy man, but do your research (like watch videos of people soldering batteries in gameboy games) before trying so you know exactly how to proceed.
I have the X-Tronic 3020, costs just $55 USD from Amazon.com, and it's never failed me before. Get some thin rosin core solder with it. Having addiitonal tools like a set of tweezers and solder wick with flux is super helpful too.
Most people who want something cheap and easy get an x-tronic. It's a cheaper chinese brand that make decent stuff. The rarely arrive broken, but if you order from amazon should be easy enough to return. https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=soldering+iron&qid=1604853250&sr=8-14
I had one of those in my office for work for a little while and it worked fine for quick stuff and it has a digital display, which I like because it's easier to see your temp. You should keep it at or under 600 degree Fahrenheit mostly.
There are plenty of other viable options, and others will have a different suggestion, but I think that one is just fine for a beginner. If you decide you will do a lot more of this stuff, you can upgrade later. The main benefit of upgrade is time to heat up the iron. Also temperature control, but you're not going to notice that unless you are doing very high temp soldering with non-leaded solder most likely.
No problem.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE is the Wirecutter recommendation (and actually came down in price after the review which is rare). For my first build I used https://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-Variable-Soldering-Station-Removable/dp/B00MCVCHJM which isn't luxurious by any means but goes to show you that you can build a keyboard with most any iron.
Forgot to ask if you got the appropriate soldering accessories (solder, wick, sucker, etc), too.
Your bottlehead kit should include any wire that you will need (I made a Crack+Speedball).
I used this soldering station and I was very happy with its performance. The station base is plastic, btw. X-Tronic Model #3020-XTS Digital Display Soldering Iron Station - 10 Minute Sleep Function, Auto Cool Down, C/F Switch, Ergonomic Soldering Iron, Solder Holder, Brass Tip Cleaner with Cleaning Flux https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Z2VKBb9AR32K0
I used this solder. It worked well. Pretty large roll, however. If you’ll never solder anything again, this would be overkill. Kester 24-6040-0053 Solder Roll, 66... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00068IJQI?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf
I bought this one, based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews. It was more than I was looking to spend, but after using it, I don't regret it in the least.
Go for it!
I used:
X-Tronic Soldering Iron Station: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DGZFSNE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Engineer SS-02 Solder Sucker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MJMXD4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Indium Wire Solder: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AYJWSY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Spudger: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DGNCNR0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Krytox lube: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MWLD61A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Honestly the most important thing IMO is having a good solder sucker. The Engineer is pretty good. I've broken a few cheap ones and it's pretty annoying to be half-way through a project and have it break.
The Masterkeys Pro is a pretty straight forward keyboard. Fairly standard key sizes, easy to take a part (especially with a spudger). The solder they use is a pain to remove though. Just take your time and be careful not to damage the PCB like I did.
Fair call. I would never have thought of making my own until GreatScott did a YouTube video of it, basically buying a great spare tip and reengineering the rest. His end result was a bit marginal though, see for yourself.
Apologies on mobile so can't make link tags pretty.
I'll do some googling on the models you mention. I guess my dissatisfaction with Jaycar came from comparing the TS1620 ($72nzd for their basic option, 40w with no digital display) with the first option that came up from a Google search, an X-Tronic 3020-XTS (link below) which was 50 USD for 75w with digital display and what seemed like a sturdier build. I know it's apples and oranges, and I have no idea whether X-Tronic (which I've never heard of till now) is a better brand than the jaycar house brand. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if they both came out of the same factory in China but that's just this century for you.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_kuqHAbM58198J
Not saying that the X-Tronic is a better deal - without a better gauge of quality that's impossible to say. Just trying to explain where I got the impression - rightly or wrongly - that $120+ for a mid range station wasn't necessarily great value.
Awesome thanks man! I haven't opened your link yet but what's your opinion on the Hakko compared to This X-Tronic?
I'm using this cheap one myself, got it as a gift. I personally like it but I'm not an expert.
I'm using this guy:
And that same solder you're looking at.
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