What's your latest purchase & what are your intentions with it? [pics ftw] (Part 2)

I’m using it at this very moment (re-capping an Oberheim DX) and quite pleased with it so far. It was the (future) availability of the tips that persuaded me to choose the Weller. The first thing I did was put a finer tip on it. It heats up fast.

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Can you mention which Weller it is exctly or post a link? Thanks!

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Weller WE1010NA. Not an expensive one… around a hundred bucks.

https://www.weller-tools.com/we1010na/

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Thanks man!

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I love that it’s “password protected”–a feature I always look for in my soldering irons!

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I was still using my 17 year old Weller WES51 until about six months ago. It stopped working, and I didn’t want to try to fix it. It had a good run. I ended up with the Hakko 951, which I absolutely love. I’d have been happy with a new Weller as well, but had never used a Hakko. Wanted to give it a try.

There were some REALLY fancy stations that I was looking at too (can’t remember the brand, but serious stuff…) I figured I do a LOT of soldering, so it would be a reasonable investment, but then I became just a touch more reasonable myself, and got the Hakko :smiley:

I figured it would be better to get a better scope before something like that. Still haven’t done that either though yet. My current one is just a tiny bit too pokey for measuring audio at the rates I want to see it update.

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For me nothing this year so I can make the no gear contest commitment.

I have tried quiet a few soldering irons(because of the work I do…) I have to say the best for me is the Pace line. https://paceworldwide.com They are not cheap, and not really for hobbyists but they are fantastic is you need to do fine pinch work(stuff smaller than 603, and packages using finer pitch than a SIOC or TSSOP). Been using them for about 20 now… won’t touch another iron anymore… lol

That not to say the Weller iron’s everyone is using are bad… I think they are great for what people use them for, and good value for money! But if you want to spend…

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Those aren’t priced too high for what you get. They look fantastic. I will be keeping them in mind for a time when the cash is flowing a little more freely.

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That was one of the brands I was looking at actually.

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Crap…. Everyone is behaving themselves this year, and I’ve already acquired two synths by 1/7. :upside_down_face:

I saw the MO become available, and I’ve been jonesing for some acid…

I think I’m going to mod it out further this time. I’ve been saying I want to do such stuff, since it’s just a B-Clone. This time I’ll have to do it.

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Y’all are making me feel iron inadequacy over here. Haha! I’m using a couple of analog weller setups, the newer of the two is approaching 20 years old now. I have two because my electronics area is L shaped (well, I’m going for an L but it’s really an amorphous chaos nest that can only be described with lovecraftian geometry) and and because I like to have one for doing house calls.
A few years ago I worked at a shop that had some swanky digital stations built by Boeing that were fantastic.
Upgrading to my first weller station from my string of $15 radio shack irons was life changing.
Anyway, congratulations on the level up @Scot_Solida

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My WES51 made it 17 years without a single issue. Then died. It might even be a fuse. I think I just wanted to try something new. :slight_smile:

That Weller made it through four digits worth of PCBs over those years.

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I’m using a Hakko fx888d and I couldn’t be happier with it.
Obsessing over tip wear seems like wasted effort to me. They cost like $5, and even with heavy use should last at least a year or longer. Obviously you should still take good care your tip. But I did the whole avoid the sponge thing for a while and it made soldering miserable, and I ended up having to buy new brass sponges(which aren’t exactly free) every few months instead.

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I got a TD-3 from my secret Santa this year. Are these beheringer units reasonably easy to mod? I’m looking forward to exploring the unit as-is for a while, but I can see myself doing some tweaks in the future.

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I have a WS51, not sure what’s different from your WES51, anyway it rocks.
I bought a newer Weller few years ago for a little production, but the WS51 remain my main soldering station, it blows the newest weller away.

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Decided I wanted to start doing it both ways and got a pair of snowboard boots.

1010 Blackbox. I’m getting a lot done with just it and the Opsix. I’m currenty learning piano and looking forward to layering up different textures and melodies.

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My last purchases of 2021 finally arrived. Not the pedals, they are old, but the cases for them. In an ideal world I’d like to have two more of these minuscule cases, so I could build the last two parts of a modular pedal setup. I also got the NTS-1 in the same package and some much needed new cables.

I’ll have to be content with what I have for the next 51 weeks as it’s the NGNY from now on.

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Probably the next thing I plan to do. I wanted the get the larger case but not sure about the inbuilt power supply as I’d like to avoid daisy chaining. And adding in my own multi-supply makes the built in one redundant.

I also planned to do waza only, but I bought a digitizer pedal that is probably my favourite thing I own.

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