Cost to get started soldering?

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Hi guys,

can someone from experience provide a cost for the equipment to get started in soldering? More micro soldering PCB boards, computer motherboards etc etc?

Been looking at getting into it for a while now to expand my businesses services. Currently have a soldering iron itself with flux, solder sucker tool but I need things like fume extractor (I know some cheap ones don't work at all apparently) and a good microscope. Possibly a heat gun also?

I've sat on the fence for a while now as in the back of my mind I think do people not just replace the whole item now as we seem to be in a bit of a throw away society rather than getting there electronic device fixed?

Cheers
 
You can spend a lot on a solder station that does it all but I find that having seperate tools for each job is best. For through-hole stuff any decent temperature controlled iron is where you want to start. Around £100 for an entry level one. Or you could get a good battery powered one such as the Pinecil. I use the Pinecil for pretty much everything these days as it's so convenient.
For SMD stuff and point reflowing you will want a hot-air iron. Around £100 again buys you something useful. You don't need to go mad with this.
I'd also invest in a heat plate as these can be useful when soldering things that have a large thermal mass.
An electric solder sucker is a lifesaver when desoldering ICs.
If you want to go crazy you can invest in a reflow oven.
 
You can spend a lot on a solder station that does it all but I find that having seperate tools for each job is best. For through-hole stuff any decent temperature controlled iron is where you want to start. Around £100 for an entry level one. Or you could get a good battery powered one such as the Pinecil. I use the Pinecil for pretty much everything these days as it's so convenient.
For SMD stuff and point reflowing you will want a hot-air iron. Around £100 again buys you something useful. You don't need to go mad with this.
I'd also invest in a heat plate as these can be useful when soldering things that have a large thermal mass.
An electric solder sucker is a lifesaver when desoldering ICs.
If you want to go crazy you can invest in a reflow oven.

What do you do for a microscope and fume extractor?

Cheers
 
Amscope Microscopes are the go to

Quick 861DW hot air station will do the job for SMD stuff

Hakko FA-430 HEPA fume extractor if you're doing it professionally otherwise if it's just amateur occassional use you can just buy one of the smaller fan mounted ones with carbon scrubber or if you've got a 3d printer you can print a case for one and just add an old PC fan and carbon scrubbers for pennies

Can't say if it's worth the investment, majority of "repair" youtubers like Louis Rossmann you only ever see fixing Macs, doesn't seem to be any money in PC based electronics repair/refurbishment

If you want to dig deeper to get best bang for buck probably best having a look at the EEVblog forums, there's a tonne of user reviews on pretty much everything over there
 
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YIHUA do some nice all in one soldering stations with all the bits and pieces you need. They are DIY quality but that is more than enough for the average person. They range from about £50 up to £200. If you want to go pro then Weller are the make to aim for but they are very expensive.
 
Aixun T3A or 3TB soldering station is excellent. Up there with the JCBs at a 1/3 of the price. Sub £100 on AliExpress

Atten / quick / best hot air are all comparable

Flux, amtech is regarded as the best but too pricy. A few YouTubers use kingbo which does the job but a decent rosin flux will also be fine

For fume extractor I would recommend the 2UUL hepa fume extractor on AliExpress for around £100

Best do some good tweezers
 
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Back in the day. Sony made us buy a hot air de-soldering station for £1000's in order for us to keep the platinum repair centre accreditation.
I called up their technical dept as we were having issues actually removing the chips after de-soldering as they were stuck down with glue.
"Oh we dont have a desoldering station we just cut the legs with a scalpel and mop it up with braid " WTF..
It then gathered dust in the corner.
 
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