Hot air station recommendations

[JW]

I'm currently looking for an affordable hot air station for the bench. One
that came up often in my searches was this one:
http://www.atomicfireballs.com/static/electronics/aoyue/index.php

Can anyone recommend this one, or perhaps have a better alternative?

Thanks.

 

[Rich Webb]

I'm currently looking for an affordable hot air station for the bench. One
that came up often in my searches was this one:
http://www.atomicfireballs.com/static/electronics/aoyue/index.php

Can anyone recommend this one, or perhaps have a better alternative?

It's probably worth at least looking over at Howard Electronics for some
baseline pricing http://www.howardelectronics.com/index.html. The hot
air stations are under 'SMD Rework'.

Several on-line sites have similar items, including MPJA, Web-Tronics,
Sparkfun, and (of course) Amazon.

The surface similarity is suggestive but I don't know of a site that's
published a real tear-down and comparison of one or more name-brand
stations and 'house'-branded models.

FWIW, my home bench sports a Xytronic 850D that I've been pretty happy
with.

 

[JW]

It's probably worth at least looking over at Howard Electronics for some
baseline pricing http://www.howardelectronics.com/index.html. The hot
air stations are under 'SMD Rework'.

Phew. $350 and up. That's a bit over my budget there.

Several on-line sites have similar items, including MPJA, Web-Tronics,
Sparkfun, and (of course) Amazon.

The surface similarity is suggestive but I don't know of a site that's
published a real tear-down and comparison of one or more name-brand
stations and 'house'-branded models.

FWIW, my home bench sports a Xytronic 850D that I've been pretty happy
with.

Thanks.

 

[JW]

I've been looking into this too, and a friend of mine who is a self employed
professional electronics designer, has highly recommended this one, which he
has had for some time. It is used daily, and he reckons that it represents
exceptional value for money

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kada-850-SMT-...14&_trkparms=72:1683|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

Arfa

Thanks Arfa, but there's none on Ebay at the moment here in the US. Andy
got me thinking about temperature control, though. So I took another look
and came up with this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SMD-Rework-Sold...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56385066d6

It has a digital readout which I assume is for temperature monitoring. Has
anyone used one of these?

 

[JW]

Thanks Arfa, but there's none on Ebay at the moment here in the US. Andy
got me thinking about temperature control, though. So I took another look
and came up with this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SMD-Rework-Sold...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56385066d6

It has a digital readout which I assume is for temperature monitoring. Has
anyone used one of these?

Found a review.
http://www.justblair.co.uk/the-kada-852-smt-solderstation.html
All in all the author appeared satisfied, and you can't beat the price.

 

[JW]

Found a review.
http://www.justblair.co.uk/the-kada-852-smt-solderstation.html
All in all the author appeared satisfied, and you can't beat the price.

Another one that looks pretty good:
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9751
Comes with an arm to hold the nozzle which could be very useful, seeing as
how my hand's not as steady as it used to be.

 

[Smitty Two]

I'm currently looking for an affordable hot air station for the bench. One
that came up often in my searches was this one:
http://www.atomicfireballs.com/static/electronics/aoyue/index.php

Can anyone recommend this one, or perhaps have a better alternative?

Thanks.

What are you using now? I don't do a lot of rework but one of my heat
guns (for shrink tubing) has some small nozzles, and it works well for
removing chips. I douse the offender liberally in liquid flux first.
Often there are other small components nearby so I'll make a little
cardboard heat shield with a window cut out of it.

I don't see the advantage of a fancy schmancy dedicated rework station.
As far as digital readouts and temperature control, I'm a bah-humbug
skeptic. You only have one choice anyway, and that's to get the thing
hot enough to melt the solder.

 

[Rich Webb]

What are you using now? I don't do a lot of rework but one of my heat
guns (for shrink tubing) has some small nozzles, and it works well for
removing chips. I douse the offender liberally in liquid flux first.
Often there are other small components nearby so I'll make a little
cardboard heat shield with a window cut out of it.

I don't see the advantage of a fancy schmancy dedicated rework station.
As far as digital readouts and temperature control, I'm a bah-humbug
skeptic. You only have one choice anyway, and that's to get the thing
hot enough to melt the solder.

Separating the heater from the blower permits a bit more agility, rather
on the order of using a pencil iron versus a two-pound soldering gun.

The closed-loop temperature control is useful to allow varying the air
flow rate without also affecting the air temp.

I guess it comes down to convenience. For folks who only do onsie-twosie
surface mount reworks, it may make more sense to skip the hot air
altogether and use the ChipQuik technique http://www.chipquik.com/. The
stuff really works, but it gets pricey for large quantity use.

 

[Archon]

I'm currently looking for an affordable hot air station for the bench. One
that came up often in my searches was this one:
http://www.atomicfireballs.com/static/electronics/aoyue/index.php

Can anyone recommend this one, or perhaps have a better alternative?

Thanks.

Stan Rubenstein are a very good source for all solder related items,
fast shipping USA

http://store.sra-solder.com/product.php/6264/26

I have the Aoyue station, I wish I had bought the one with temp readout
but I just wanted to see if they were any good, no problems so far, does
its job.
JC

 

[Smitty Two]

I guess it comes down to convenience. For folks who only do onsie-twosie
surface mount reworks, it may make more sense to skip the hot air
altogether and use the ChipQuik technique http://www.chipquik.com/. The
stuff really works, but it gets pricey for large quantity use.

I've seen that stuff before, but never tried it. I think I'll get some
though, and have it on hand for the next time I need it. Thanks for the
reminder.

 

[JW]

Another one that looks pretty good:
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9751
Comes with an arm to hold the nozzle which could be very useful, seeing as
how my hand's not as steady as it used to be.

Ended up getting this one. Using the one of standard single nozzles it
came with I was able to remove a 44 pin PLCC with no problems. Tried using
the same nozzle to remove a 84 pin flat pack, but this didn't work, so I
borrowed a nozzle specifically for that package from the place I work that
has a Hakko and it worked perfectly. (Good to know that Hakko nozzles are
interchangeable with this station.) I checked its output temperature with
a thermocouple and the readings were within 2c of the set temperature of
the station. No lifted pads or circuit board damage so far. Overall for
the $100 price I'm quite happy with the station, and shipping was fast as
well.

 

[N_Cook]

Ended up getting this one. Using the one of standard single nozzles it
came with I was able to remove a 44 pin PLCC with no problems. Tried using
the same nozzle to remove a 84 pin flat pack, but this didn't work, so I
borrowed a nozzle specifically for that package from the place I work that
has a Hakko and it worked perfectly. (Good to know that Hakko nozzles are
interchangeable with this station.) I checked its output temperature with
a thermocouple and the readings were within 2c of the set temperature of
the station. No lifted pads or circuit board damage so far. Overall for
the $100 price I'm quite happy with the station, and shipping was fast as
well.

If salvaging , rather than replacing. Make a mask so you can blast the body
of the IC, not the pins, before desoldering

 

[N_Cook]

blast with freezer spray that is

 

[JW]

blast with freezer spray that is

Well, for the 84 pin flat pack, I was transferring one of the A/D
converters from a scrap Tek TDS540 ACQ board to a TDS544A being repaired.
Didn't seem to hurt it, but YMMV.