Best Bang For Your Buck Soldering Station Advice Needed!

[Greywolf74]

+1. Buy once cry once. I bought mine in 2016 and works great (knock on wood). You can get replacement/extra tips, plenty of power and heat.

Nothing Chinese here Hakko is a Japanese company, and all the US sales go through Hakko USA.

The lower power soldering irons/stations work well for small wires, like 20 awg and small terminals. But you will eventually need to solder something that's 12 awg or less and will want some more power. Even at 60W the Hakko struggles with 8 awg wires, that could also be me.

Do you have the T19-D65 tip? If not it will help with 8AWG but even with it that tip its still a bit of work

 

[Jerold]

Do you have the T19-D65 tip? If not it will help with 8AWG but even with it that tip its still a bit of work

Yup. Without that it's near impossible with a 60W iron. The 8mm bullets are much easier, I use a mini torch.