Hot Air Recommendations?

Is Hot Air the bomb?

  • OH YEAH

    Votes: 6 85.7%
  • OH NO

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • Total voters
    7

GingerOfOz

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As you've probably heard, my previous iron went on the fritz, and I am in the business for a new one (For a full description, see my worklog.) I am considering purchasing a hot air tool, as I can likely continue to borrow normal irons from my school. Is moving to hot air the best move for me? I've heard others sing its praises.

If this would be a smart move, what do you recommend? I'm looking in the price range of between $50 and $80, and would like a quality product that'll last rather than something cheap that I'll have to quickly replace.

I've been looking at soldering iron maintenance tutorials, and I think my mistake was not turning off the iron when it didn't need to be on. I'd usually leave it on if I was going to go do something else for 15-30 minutes, and I think that contributed to its death.

Thanks!
 

cheese

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I would say hot air is a great tool to have, but don't try and replace an iron with it. Not sure how much use you'll get with it at this point though, hot air is great for removing components such as U10, but you've already passed that point (unless you break your wii somehow :P).

I personally have a heat gun I got for like 20$ from home depot, it's served me well so far and I've had it for a while, but I know it's not really recommended since it gets pretty hot (400c and 530c are the only two settings).
 

GingerOfOz

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I mean, I'd expected portabalizing to be a "one-shot" thing for me, but even though I haven't finished this one I'm already making plans for another one. You do have a good point about hot air not replacing a normal iron. I've seen some "2 in 1" stations that offer both, so I might look into those.
 

Shank

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Hot air stations are an excellent tool that has proven to be more useful that I expected it to be. Im probably a bad example on this one, but I just use a stupid powerful heat gun that dims the lights when I turn it on and that works fine for me. I have a hot air station, but always find myself using my heat gun more, mostly because I use just use it to blast off all the regulation components off Wiis.
 

GingerOfOz

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I found this soldering station, and I think this will be the one I go with. It's got a normal iron, a hot air tool, and a variable DC power supply. It has good reviews and good feedback from people who have had to work with customer service. Unless you guys see any warning signs about it, then I'll probably order it later tonight.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
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