RS Digital Iron and old fluke meter

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lostbaka
 
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Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:45 pm

RS Digital Iron and old fluke meter

Post by lostbaka »

My friend's x0x has arrived and I have a few tool questions. Has anyone used the Radio Shack digital temp control soldering iron? How does it compare to theWeller WES51 or WESD51 Being from Radio Shack means it's cheaper than the Weller and easier to get (seeing as no one uses the electronics section at RS anymore). Also, i have a Fluke 87 III multimeter, that should fine right?

thanks

cheesy
 
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:06 am

Post by cheesy »

I assume you're talking about this model: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062751

I don't trust anything from RadioShack, and while I don't have any experience with this particular soldering iron it looks like it's not very good quality (check some of the reviews too)

I actually just got a Weller WESD51 today. I haven't gotten a chance to use it but it seems very very nice. Functionally it's probably similar to that Radio Shack one, but it's probably much better quality. It's also designed to be static free, which is pretty essential when soldering ICs.


Fluke multimeters are supposed to be very good quality, so as long as it has all the basics it should be fine. Especially if it has 3 decimal digits so you can accurately measure the 5.333 voltage source from the power supply for tuning (but people seem to manage without 3 digits of accuracy)

I'm still looking for a nice multimeter and leaning towards a Fluke, but unfortunately after buying the x0x and Weller I'm pretty much broke.

cchocjr
 
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:57 am

Re: RS Digital Iron and old fluke meter

Post by cchocjr »

lostbaka wrote:My friend's x0x has arrived and I have a few tool questions. Has anyone used the Radio Shack digital temp control soldering iron? How does it compare to theWeller WES51 or WESD51 Being from Radio Shack means it's cheaper than the Weller and easier to get (seeing as no one uses the electronics section at RS anymore). Also, i have a Fluke 87 III multimeter, that should fine right?

thanks
I use weller soldering irons at work, and I use that exact model of Radio Shack soldering iron at home. I actully replaced the tip that came with the radio shack iron with a replacement weller tip, which has helped immensely. The only qualm I have with the r/s iron (after using it for 12+ hours on my b0x, is that the handle gets noticably more hot after extended use than the weller's I use at work. Also, there is a pretty annoying screw near the tip of the iron that juts out more than I'd like. If you do go with the r/s, be sure to get a different tip, as the one it comes with is too damn long, and makes minute movements and close-quarters soldering a pain.

my $0.02

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