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Hot take: Not all cheap soldering irons are garbage
I keep seeing people say you gotta spend $80 plus on a soldering station or you're wasting your time. But I've been using this $12 Weller from Ace Hardware for like 6 years now and it's never let me down. Last week I had to redo a busted headphone jack on a pair of Sennheisers, took me maybe 20 minutes including cleanup. Sure, the tip isn't as fancy as the Hakko stuff but for basic board work and speaker wires, it's been totally fine. Am I just lucky or has anyone else had decent luck with the cheap end of the aisle?
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derekp707d ago
A buddy of mine tried to save cash and got one of those no-name $8 irons from Amazon. First time he used it, the tip turned black almost instantly and wouldn't hold solder at all. He ended up borrowing my old Weller and finished his guitar pedal project in like 15 minutes. But here's the thing, he dropped it on the floor and the tip broke, but the rest of it still works fine years later. So I guess it's a mixed bag, you never know what you're gonna get with the super cheap stuff. Your luck with that $12 Weller is probably more about the brand than the price, those old Wellers are tanks.
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