Solder iron recommendations

cathead said:
If you remember Allied Radio, Burstein Applebee might be back there in the cobwebs too...?
Click to expand...
Must admit I do not remember them.

I never had that much luck with soldering guns until at some point I realized there had to be really low resistance connections where the tip ends connected. I still don't find that they heat consistently. Maybe some conductive goop would help?
 
amuller said:
Must admit I do not remember them.

I never had that much luck with soldering guns until at some point I realized there had to be really low resistance connections where the tip ends connected. I still don't find that they heat consistently. Maybe some conductive goop would help?
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of soldering guns myself. I prefer an iron of some sort. Usually I use an Ungar iron hooked into
a Variac for temperature control. I have several with different wattages and tips depending on the job. For bigger jobs
I will use a 100 watt Black Beauty and for larger jobs, I drag out the Hexacon.


Burstein Applebee had an electronics catalog I drooled over as a kid. Also I built a lot of Heathiits and an Eico kit or two as well.
 
Don't know why but pretty much all the kits I built were the Allied ones "Knight-Kit." I think maybe they were a little plainer and cheaper than the Heathkits? It would be sorta fun to have a couple of them around but they are long gone.
 
MikeInOr said:
I bought a used Hexacon precision temperature controlled soldering station from the Tektronix surplus store 30 years ago... I have always regretted it... I should have bought 4 more of them! No clue what I would use 5 soldering stations for but it was a great deal and the one I bought has worked perfectly for 30 years now. I bought a variety of Hexacon tips off ebay and use the soldering station for everything from surface mount to 10 gauge stranded. I have an even older Weller and it does a great job but the Hexacon is the one that is always on my bench ready to use.
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Hi Mike. Do you know a good place to get Hexacon tips? I have a couple of Hexacon irons. They are fine, but once the tip loses its plating, it degrades rapidly. They seem to be discontinued in the smaller sizes.
 
amuller said:
cathead said:
If you remember Allied Radio, Burstein Applebee might be back there in the cobwebs too...?
Click to expand...
Must admit I do not remember them.

I never had that much luck with soldering guns until at some point I realized there had to be really low resistance connections where the tip ends connected. I still don't find that they heat consistently. Maybe some conductive goop would help?
Click to expand...
Just insure the copper is clean.

A dab of grease does not hurt.

Insure they are always tight.

Almost forgot about BA...

remember their catalogs of lots of odds and ends...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
 
ericc said:
Hi Mike. Do you know a good place to get Hexacon tips? I have a couple of Hexacon irons. They are fine, but once the tip loses its plating, it degrades rapidly. They seem to be discontinued in the smaller sizes.
Click to expand...

I picked up a bunch of tips off ebay for really cheap back when I bought my iron. I haven't needed to replace any yet so I haven't looked lately. I have a couple of needle point tips that are excellent for surface mount work... but I wouldn't part with them.
 
IIRC in the very beginning of the film "In Cold Blood" where Robert Blake gets off the bus there's a Burnstein-Applebee sign in the distance
Mark
 
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