https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837

Randy Fromm has some real useful stuff as well.

I've had success de-soldering C64 chips with a cheap 40watt iron and de-soldering wick. If the old solder won't budge then just add some new solder and try again.

I use a Valleman 50W station that I bought for R200 ($20), a chisel tip, soldering wick and a plain solder sucker. Good enough. Don't forget to tin your tip and maintain your iron properly!

Soldering is usually quite painful for the inexperienced. I suggest practice on dead boards, etc LOTS before trying to fix something for real so you can grasp the basics.

I recently got a AOYUE 936 Soldering Station.
It's a cheap clone of the discontinued Hakko 930.

So far it does well for soldering circuitboards. Only thing is that it's not calibrated according to the label, so you need to add up about 50 more degrees (celsius)
to get the desired temperature.

It's only 32 bucks (or 37 euro's)

That's a pretty nice budget soldering station! Can you use Hakko 930 tips on the iron as well?

Evert wrote:

That's a pretty nice budget soldering station! Can you use Hakko 930 tips on the iron as well?

Not sure, but according to this vid, it can 🤣. Around 17:08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdV7XBae74

Guy is a bit harsh, but you can't blame him because he got highend stuff.

Cool! On a related note, what would be a good (and preferably cheap) desoldering station or desoldering gun?

It's hard to beat soldering wick when it comes to cost, I reckon. (You just dab it in the melted solder and it sucks it up.)

I've seen this happen in videos and when other people use it, but when I use it... Yeah... 😜

Jorpho wrote:

It's hard to beat soldering wick when it comes to cost, I reckon. (You just dab it in the melted solder and it sucks it up.)

Great for SMD, but generally this does nothing when clearing solder from holes. Vacuum solder suckers work okay-ish. Sometimes pushing a hollow needle though can help, but it's easy to mess up the plating on the inside. Nothing really beats an automatic vacuum iron. (I'm still looking for an affordable set too)

I just got one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/361165556271

And I have been using one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Variable-Temperature- … W-/271033881727

Unknown_K wrote:

I just got one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/361165556271

Do let us know how it goes! I've been eyeing these off for a while, but I'm not finding any reviews of them.

I use an analog Weller soldering station and a solder sucker attachment. Think dedicated desoldering stations like the Weller WR2000X aren't really needed unless you do regular professional repair, they're way to expensive for what they are and the old $100 station performs almost as well with a solder sucker attachment.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141291544640