Walked into a surplus electronics store in Akron and changed my mind about desoldering stations

I always figured those cheap $30 desoldering irons were good enough... then I hit up this old surplus place on Main Street and tried a Hakko FR-301 they had on display. The guy running the shop let me mess with it on a junk board and I pulled a 16-pin IC clean in like 10 seconds flat. Now I'm saving up for one because my wrist can't take that manual pump anymore. Anybody else had that moment where a tool just made you see the light?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara7935d ago

Man that Hakko is a game changer for real. I had the same exact moment a few years back with a desoldering station at a local hackerspace. Those manual pumps wrecked my hand after about an hour of pulling parts off old boards. Once you go electric there's really no going back. The FR-301 is worth every penny if you do this stuff regularly, your wrist will thank you later.

tylerpark5d ago

You got that right about the Hakko being a game changer, but I gotta say something real quick about the hackerspace part. Those places are great and all, but a lot of them use the older Hakko 808 or even the 472, not the FR-301. The FR-301 is the newer model with the built in air pump, the older ones need a separate air compressor hooked up. I chased down an 808 for months before realizing the difference. Still a solid tool though, just a different setup.