Soldering irons

[jamesy]

I wanna do a few mods without too much hassle. I've managed to do a few before with the ?10 efforts from Maplin but they are pretty tragic. Can someone help me find one with a suitable tip for console modifications? The cheap ones seem to take an age to melt solder and when I'm watching guides online they melt in like half of a second.

[speedlolita]

What solder are you using?

Before you grab a new iron I'd probably suggest buying some fine (0.5mm pitch?) solder with a ratio of 60/40 tin and lead. Should melt super fast and be perfect for fine work.

If you feel like splashing some cash, I would heartily recommend the Hakko FX-888D that I have. Run this baby at 400c and it has never skipped a beat.

[jamesy]

Never even thought about different types of solder. I'll have to look into that before spending too much. Those soldering station type you recommend are quite appealing.

[smouty]

You can't really beat a Weller soldering station TBH.
I would buy a new iron and a used PSU on ebay.
This is the type I have always used

[jamesy]

I've been looking at the weller stations and they look like the dream. I've bought some fine pitch 60/40 solder to test the water anyway before I spend too much. I'm gonna do a simple 50/60 hz switch on a PAL model 2 saturn to begin with. I swapped the capacitors on a game gear last year and it was far harder than it should've been.

[smouty]

I've used the Weller with a fine tip for doing the PS2 mods in the past which are probably about the hardest soldering job you'd have to do.
The 360 mod was no probs in comparison.

You can find a good set on ebay for ?75 and every part is replaceable.

[speedlolita]

Yeah, I think PS2 modchip installs can be the most difficult thing I've done too. When the BIOS doesn't have any traces at least, like certain SCPH-9000X or SCPH-10000/15000 models!

[MartyG]

Another vote for Weller - I've had my soldering station by them for over 20 years now and it still works as well as it did when I first had it.

[eastyy]

Think they had a tv show many years ago about soldering...think it was called solder solder...(sorry)

[EvilBoris]

Another vote for Weller - I've had my soldering station by them for over 20 years now and it still works as well as it did when I first had it.

Shame about the frail human body no using it

[MartyG]

Nah, you just get a helping hand