Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Hand tools, soldering irons, scopes, multimeters. Talk about em HERE!

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
ld3300
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:08 pm

Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by ld3300 »

Hello all,

Quick tl;dr: Looking for organization with soldering stations that can be rented for a few days of classes next spring.

I am working with a non-profit organization with courses focused on theatre technology. We just finished our annual conference where we did a couple of soldering courses. The demand for hands on class time was far larger than we were able to provide. It looks like we are going to try and expand the opportunities for next year (Seattle in March).

One of our major issues is that I am trying to tackle is the poor quality of the soldering irons we had available to us. Our national officers want to support the course but aren't able to financially justify nice equipment that is used for 3 days a year and sits on the shelf the rest of the time (and they make a good point).

I'm not looking for high end industrial irons, just something comparable to like a decent Weller or Hakko 888d. Is anyone aware of any groups or organizations that have setups they use for trainings that may be available? I'm hoping to find somewhere between 20 and 30 units.

Thank you for your time,

David

User avatar
adafruit_support_mike
 
Posts: 67446
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm

Re: Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

We don't do rental at all, and I don't know of any companies that do offhand.

You might want to check with any local community colleges and tech schools to see if they have the kind of inventory you need and would be willing to rent it short-term.

User avatar
ld3300
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:08 pm

Re: Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by ld3300 »

Thank you for the response. That is a great idea.

-David

User avatar
Franklin97355
 
Posts: 23910
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:33 pm

Re: Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by Franklin97355 »

I have no experience with these irons or Temu but you might look at their offering if nothing pans out. https://www.google.com/search?q=cheap+s ... e&ie=UTF-8

User avatar
ld3300
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:08 pm

Re: Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by ld3300 »

Thank you.

Right now the organization has a bunch of inexpensive 80w irons. Problem is they are too hot and obliterate the tips. I'm still working with the national administration on the best course of action. If we can't find another path one option I'm considering is putting them on a sine wave dimmer to cut down the power.

User avatar
Jeremy97469
 
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2017 1:25 am

Re: Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by Jeremy97469 »

80W irons are definitely too much heat for electronics and a lower wattage would be much better. May I ask if the sine-wave dimmers are inexpensive? It appears that some simple temperature adjustable soldering pencil irons can be found for less than $20 each. This adjustable soldering pencil iron would be awesome for your course:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3685

Harbor Freight offers a 30W non-adjustable pencil iron for $6 each if wanting to go really cheap. Those can be used for soldering heat-insensitive electronics. Using a heat-sink clip protecting more temperature sensitive electronics is an inexpensive option.

I would recommend getting 1 or 2 of the soldering irons that may work and test them out with your teaching materials (the electronics and circuit boards) with a beginner person before ordering enough for the entire class.

User avatar
ld3300
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:08 pm

Re: Looking to rent soldering irons for course

Post by ld3300 »

Thank you for the suggestions. I will propose those to the national organization as options based on how much investment they are able to put into the course. The plan is for it to be a continuing part of the annual conference, so I'm hoping to get them to commit long term, but the inexpense fall backs are a good idea.

It's an entertainment industry event, so a dimmer pack may be free. It wouldn't even have to be sine wave dimmer, triac dimmers would accomplish the same thing.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Tools Tools Tools”