Impressive repair work, man. I'm not a very experienced solderer to begin with, so (de)soldering SMD components still seems a bit scary to me. 😅

I guess having the right tools makes it a lot more doable.

Thanks 😀

digger wrote on 2021-05-29, 20:47:

I guess having the right tools makes it a lot more doable.

The cost here was around 30 USD for preheater (3d printer heatbed...), 60 USD for hot air station, 20 USD for soldering iron and few more for the other stuff. I think I'm actually using bare minimum equipment required for such kind of repairs 😁 "Pro" stuff is certainly much more expensive. But fixing retro hardware can be pretty affordable I think.

Oh, and I also used a 'microscope' - USB webcam with 12mm security lens installed, and ring light made of broken LED light bulb. Another cheap hack 😁

Yeah, I've been reminding myself to buy a decent soldering station for a while now, as well as one of those heat-resistant silicon soldering mats, and a fan to get rid of the fumes. That way, I can finally get to some weekend retro tinkering. Up until now, I haven't done much soldering, and used a non-regulated soldering iron. I didn't learn until much later that an actual station with a configurable regulated temperature really makes soldering PCBs much more convenient.

But on the other hand, I totally get how hacking your own tools can be good fun in itself.

I'm considering this combined (de)soldering station with both an iron and a heat gun, which would allow for both traditional soldering and SMD work:

https://www.conrad.nl/p/toolcraft-soldeer-en- … t-480-c-1620655

No experience with the brand. It's apparently A Conrad house brand. But the price seems okay.

I don't know this particular station, but the air blower looks like it is similar type as mine (858D) - it uses a fan (there are also biger compressor type stations which supposedly can push more air). If it also has a soldering iron that's nice, but I would check what type of soldering tips it accepts. They look similar to T12 which is a common standard, but I'm not sure. You certainly would need to be able to switch tips depending on the type of work you do. //Edit: they seem to be a bit too short for T12.

If you want to repair pre 2006 leaded solder hardware I guess it's not that critical what hardware you use, because leaded solder melts quite easily. Also a preheater can lower the required temperature rise by 60 degrees or more, so it's worth having one.

Temperature controlled soldering iron is certainly a must, because non-regulated ones can heat up too much and damage solder pads quickly. Now I'm using a generic T12 solder iron powered with laptop power supply, with better than stock tips (if you have T12 mount you can buy the best tips you can and they should work fine).

T12 tips have also integrated heating element - so if it burns up, you just buy a new tip instead of entire soldering iron.