Yihua 936 soldering station

[Fndr8875]

hey everyone,

wondering if anyone uses this soldering station. I got a couple months back, and its definitly better than the one i had before that just plugs into the wall. I know people had had decent success with it, but these are people doing RC stuff, i guess building those little drones or whatever bc there are videos on youtube and posts on message boards. Mine only came with the very fine pointed tip, from what ive found ppl saying is to buy a hakko replacement iron, and a hakko tip and it will work way better. Also it seemed way hotter than my last soldering iron, which plugged into wall but did have a small dial on it to control temp, so it got me thinking and do any of you calibrate your irons, if so how do you do it? There are little deals where you just put the tip on a metal point and it tells you temp, but these are kinda expensive. I know, i know just get a hakko station, id love to do that but i just cant afford to do that right now. Also what size tips do you find work best? Its hard to guage the actual size of the tip by looking online, seems to me that one that is just a tad thicker than the super fine pencil tip, but has a chisel to it would be perfect. Ive had success using a large chisel on few vero builds that werent too tight, but now i etch whatever i wanna build and with no solder mask the chisel just flows solder way to fast. anyway thanks for any replies.

[PRR]

> it seemed way hotter than my last soldering iron
> the chisel just flows solder way to fast

It has a knob on the box. According to a chatterbox video reviewer the low end doesn't do much. Have you tried various medium-low settings?

Agree that "pencil" is wrong, you usually want "chisel".

[Fndr8875]

yea i noticed it has the little trimpot on it, but i havent messed with it, just have tried to use the temp dial to raise or lower temp based on what tip im using ( the ones leftver from the other soldering irons i got from amazon) i didnt see any point since i cant measure temp. figured that most of the useable tip sizes i have are pretty well worn out. Like i said the large chisel tip i have that barely has any use seems to work pretty well, like it doesnt start to oxidize like 10 seconds after I tin it. Im gonna go ahead and order a genuine hakko tip

this is the one i want

http://www.ebay.com/itm/T18-S6-subs-900M-T-S6-Hakko-Tip-for-936-12-FX888-23BY-/171242226110?hash=item27ded501be:m:mDJPZQgjRxSyuBmy-VTiyAg

gonna do some more research before i pull the trigger to see if i can find like a real life picture so i can see size, or will go with the flat kind of chisel. ill be really frustrated if it doesnt fit correctly or is to big.

[Fndr8875]

lol, im not a complete tard,  i have noticed the big knob on the heater. there is also a little trimpot underneath the big black knob for calibration i was referring to. In the youtube videos ive watched even the hakkos or more expensive stations were as much as 40 to 50 watts under/over what you set it on. Its frustrating because for like first 10-15 min i get started on project it works ok, then the solder joints start to not look good. So in itching to be able to start and finish something in one sitting and not feel like im racing to get as much done in 15 min then have to turn it off let it cool off switch tips , has turned fun hobby into frustration and anxiety , so just not messing with anything until i get new tip, oh well live and learn. The station was only 18 bucks so get what you pay for..

[GGBB]

There are little deals where you just put the tip on a metal point and it tells you temp, but these are kinda expensive.

There's a Chinese Hakko out there for under $20. The 'real' Hakko is >$200. Not clear whether it's a counterfeit (looks similar to the 'real' Hakko but easy to see the difference) or a China made for China market version (grey market). There's a u-toob video where a guy has both and compares them. I bought one. It works fine and seems well made.

[PRR]

> i didnt see any point since i cant measure temp.

My kitchen cooker is only low-med-hi, no numbers.

And if it did, it would be wrong.

Try a low number. Try a high number. If the steak just lays there getting old, or burns-up fast, try numbers in the middle. Does not matter if that number is 420 deg C, or 47 furlongs, or 7 semi-tones.... the numbers are just so you can find the same setting again. (You surely will need higher or lower for big or small joints.)

I would not mess with a recess trim. Yet. We aren't tuning a guitar to unison, just getting a steak or a joint to cook properly. And we don't have a clue "what the number should be".

[PRR]

EDIT-- I'm the dummy. My stove DOES have numbers. 1 to 9. OK, so 1-9 _what_?

By try-and-fry, I have learned that it will hold a boil on a large open pot on "7" (whatever that is), and "4" if it has a lid. If I cooked more than two ways, I might make marks for each food. You might have a mark for "fine wire to small LED", "DIP on PCB", "heavy wire to SwitchCraft jack". You find these by try-and-fry. If solder hardly melts, turn-up. If the pot boils over (solder melts fast, PCB traces lift, tip-life is short), turn-down.

Apologies if you have been all over this already.

A hard-won tip: many solder irons won't stay hot with large air flow. My trusty Weller got lame. Someone gave me one of the things with the knob, and I was not impressed. However it worked less-bad on my other bench? I finally got less-dumb and realized that the poor heat started about the same time the building crew fixed the poor airflow in the building, and my bench was under an outlet. And yeah that kept the simmering flux smolder out of my face, but was also blowing the heat away. You'd think 45W in a small tip would not cool much, but just enough to make the solder laugh. A cardboard baffle to deflect the air and everything worked again.

[armillary]

Also on ebay is the 937D model, for $10 more, which has a temperature display. I got one a few months back and it's working out OK. It's more convenient than the larger and noisier rework station I'd been using for the past few years. My projects are mostly PCB and veroboard, so I always use the fine tip and set the temp at 380 C. I would  change to a heavier tip for soldering jacks on a guitar or point to point on an amp, but for pedals I'm lazy and use the fine tip for everything.     

On your 936, 380 C is about one o'clock on the dial (it's the same place as on the 937D). Just my two cents.