deskthority

What soldering irons and associated gadgets can you recommend?

They must have temperature control and must not cost more than 50 quid.

You get bonus points if you can recommend a decent one under 30.

The cheapest, working desoldering solution you will find is the ZD-915.

For some reason it's much cheaper in the EU than in the US so the situation might be different there.

I don't think you can got <50€ for a desoldering tool ... too many parts required

I'm not buying a desoldering solution. That is for someone who is desoldering boards on a monthly basis. At the moment it's a one-time thing so I'm going for the braid or one of the 10 quid air pump jobbies. Then if I go further down the rabbit hole then maybe desoldering stations are a thing to look for.

I have one of these:



They are well under 30 € and can be found in red or in blue under different "brands" depending on the importer.

It's ok for most throughhole soldering, bis it clearly has limitations. Especially the tips that are sold for it are really bad.

Don't think of doing SMD work with these.

I started with one like that as well. Very useful but requires a little initial tweaking to make sure you're not working "too hot" since the temperature control has no display. The idea is to try and find the lowest temperature that works good for your particular type of solder. Spent a little time slowly working down the tempeature until you feel like a lower temperature is significantly increasing the melting times.

Don't be afraid of SMD work, if you are careful with the temperature setting this tool should also be good for soldering simple SMD components like diodes, connectors or resistors. On a good PCB, solder is pretty fool proof. Just head up both sides and somehow apply solder. It will find the right place

Well ... learn from the best:

Even the cheapest "setup" is probably better than random pieces, but these things work OK:

I dropped the cash on a ZD-985. It's basically the upgraded/updated ZD-915. It's performed admirably, though the newer gun design is very disappointing. The spring clogs easily and badly, the catch plate just floats around making reinstallation a bitch, and it is extremely difficult to remove the glass tube.