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Soldering station recommendations


daveturnbull

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1 minute ago, daveturnbull said:

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Fixed. For £0. I sacrificed an old USB cable. USB is 4 core, 2x 20awg, 2x 28awg. The 20awg's I used for the main power (plenty man enough for the 2 amps they will carry), and combined the 28awg's for the earth (ESD protection). I removed the socket from the front of the power supply and just hard wired the cable in through a grommet with a hole melted in it. Bits inside the PSU are on easy crimp terminals. It's only the other ends inside the iron that I had to solder on with the aldi soldering bat. Not pretty, but stuck. Lets hope it lasts. Being a PVC wire, it's not as nice and floppydoodilus as the original silicone one, but at least none of the cores are touching inside.

It's first job will be to replace the neon strobe jobbie on a Garrard DD75.

Well done you

Regards Stephen

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1 hour ago, daveturnbull said:

It's first job will be to replace the neon strobe jobbie on a Garrard DD75.

That looks a bit more electronically sophisticated than either of the Garrards I had - a Lab 80 and something of similar vintage from lower down the range that I can't remember the model number of.

The Lab 80 was a work of art - a ridiculously complicated network of levers, rotors and assorted widgets that operated the tone arm and auto-queue stack. Can't imagine it did anything for the sound quality but it was fascinating to watch operating (and get working in the first place - I scrounged it from my grandfather's garage, gummed up and full of sawdust). Built a wooden base for it to sit in and then had years of service out of it, before it was superceded by a Planar 2 which I still have.

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On 2/18/2022 at 7:04 PM, geoffbeaumont said:

Mine's an Atten - can't remember the model number for sure, might be an ST-80. I'm no soldering pro, but it was picked out for me by a friend who's an electronics tech, as a good budget buy (upgrading from a more basic iron like you). Bought a selection of tips with it. I've been really pleased with it.

The RS Iron is just a re-badged Atten (it says Atten on the label on the bottom).  The first one I bought is identical to this, 80W.  RS no longer keep that one, just the (slightly) higher power version.
When I bought mine, it was about the same price as the Atten one too.  That's what I'd buy today - it really is very good.

I also have an RS heat gun thingy for SMD - though, in practice I use it for heat-shrink more than SMD.  It's also top notch for the price.

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  • 4 weeks later...
16 minutes ago, daveturnbull said:

So you know when you've been searching for something a lot on Marketplace and it learns what you like then pushes relevant adverts your way.... 

Erm..... "whoops".... 

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Was it a fixer or just a good old bargain regards Stephen

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