I finally got a decent desoldering gun and it paid for itself in one weekend

I was using one of those cheap $15 spring-loaded solder suckers for years and just dealing with the frustration. Kept burning pads and lifting traces on old circuit boards. Last month I finally broke down and spent $120 on a Hakko FR-301 desoldering gun. Did a repair job on an old Pioneer receiver from the 70s that had a bunch of bad caps. It took me maybe 2 hours to clear all the old solder holes. Before that gun it would have been an all day thing and I probably would have messed up the board. I already used it on three more projects since then. Anyone else have a tool they avoided buying that actually saved them time and headaches in the end?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily3601mo ago

Oh man, I used to be one of those "just use a solder wick and patience" people (I was so proud of my frugality). Then I tried helping a friend recap an old Tektronix scope with a two-layer board and spent three hours fighting with braid that wouldn't suck up the solder properly. Now I have a Hakko desoldering gun too and I feel like an idiot for waiting so long - it really does change the whole game on those tight, crusty joints.

skyler_mitchell1mo ago

My neighbor gave me a 1978 Kenwood amp a few years back that he said had a bad channel. I poked at it with a multimeter for a week and found some cracked solder joints on the power supply board. Those old soldering irons with the plunger just made a mess of things. I ended up buying a used Weller station from a guy on Craigslist for forty bucks and it fixed that amp right up. Funny how the right tool can turn a frustrating job into something pretty satisfying.