Please drop some links for the soldering irons y’all use, mine is apparently lost in my parent’s attic, and thinking of, probably too large for console modding.
I figured to ask here as I believe the console modding community here would already have some good finds. I’m also wanting todo a battery mod to my GBC soon.
Tilswall Soldering Station 65W used to be $40 and the best deal in irons, it’s now $75 and I would still argue the best iron for the money. Consistent temps, quick heating, comes with decent tips and has solid support for other tips. I’ve used this on countless keyboards, consoles, prototype boards, etc.
Metcal.
If you’re going to be doing any amount of soldering, I’d highly suggest the Hakko FX888D. You want to use a good iron, otherwise you’ll get poor results and/or be more likely to hurt yourself. (Hitting one’s thumb with a hot soldering iron is not fun.)
I have the FM-203, and I believe it uses the same tips as the 888D for the standard pencil, right? If so, I can vouch that it’s a good system. I bought about 10 high end tips with it when I bought it 6 or 7 years ago, and I’ve only ever had to replace one. It pushes enough heat for everything I’ve tried, even HDMI port ground pin desoldering when combined with a low melt solder.
I also use the Metcal MX-500P, and other than a quick and easy RMA process a couple years into owning it, it’s even better than the Hakko for smaller soldering, because the induction heating ensures solid heating all the way to the tip. It’s not really necessary for most hobby soldering, but very worth it if you do a lot of microsoldering.
Pinecil is pretty great for what it is. Hakko’s always a safe bet.
I started with a Hakko, $120. It blows my mind how much better a $25 soldering iron (Pinecil V2) is. Both only have 2 buttons, but the Hakko does a terrible job with them. The Hakko also takes significantly longer to heat, which resulted in me running it really hot when I first started out.
I use a weller WSD 81 soldering station. But I got it for free, since I work in the pcb soldering business, and my boss gave me that one when I asked to borrow a soldering station since it’s an old model we don’t use in production anymore. He said I could keep it, which is great. The tips are still being sold.
