Hakko FX951 Professional Thermally Controlled Soldering Station & Soldering Iron with Tip Set Kit – Compact 75W High Power - Interchangeable Composite Tips – 91 Varieties (5 Included) - UK Plug

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With 91 Variations of Tips and various other accessories available to purchase separately, the FX951 is a real workhorse for both the professional or hobbyist. In either case, I felt it was a good time to upgrade some of my tools for working with electronics — primarily the soldering iron, but also a few other miscellaneous parts including multimeter test leads, tweezers, knife, and solder. Can be used in combination with the HAKKO 490 smoke cleaner or the HAKKO 494 smoke absorbing system for line-production. The poor little things, and the PCB got damaged, and I suppose that means I'LL have to bodge leads on for traces, but that would be good practice.

There was more thermal drop in the T12 clones, using the same tips; the T12 stations had to be set higher and had to be turned up higher and/or more frequently when encountering heavy joints, using the equivalent tips. The FX-951 does not have the same system for changing the tips, and makes 70W against 90W for the FX-971, do you think that makes a big difference?Can be used in combination with the HAKKO 490 (Discontinued) smoke cleaner or the HAKKO 494 smoke absorbing system for line-production. Maybe the tables turn at much higher outputs and/or maybe a T12 wattage is actually much higher than an 888 even though the rating is similar (Maybe the 888 puts a significant amount of its 65-70W into the handle/air vs the 24V T12 clones 85ish(? It uses a special handpiece made of aluminum and the station and stand are all metal construction nothing matches it for a couple of hundred bucks. I test my tips against a temp checker (a Hakko clone) when I remember it or I am very bore with the Job (it's an excuse to stop working). There is a raft of counterfeit Hakko stuff out there in addition to the clones and unless you are absolutely sure that a comparison was done against a genuine product, it probably isn't a review worth considering.

In the Pace I can change the temperature easiest than Hakko, but the presets are the same to change or worst and really I use the presets all the time, never I need to change the working temperature in 2 degrees, If one preset it's not ok I take the next one. In general terms I prefer my hakko essentially because I have been using them for years (actually in the 951 were months ) but Pace seemed like a good solder station, it honors the brand, but nothing I have tried seemed really better than in Hakko or others brands.For someone else, max might be your default setting; watching some Louis Rossman videos, I get impression that he leaves his at max all the time; actually seen him looking for the key to demonstrate how to change temp of his 951, and it was set and locked to 480C. We apologize for the previous misdescription in the HAKKO FX-952 Instruction Manual, which has been corrected. Not until you get into 100+watt range and/or production soldering (one joint after the other, nonstop) of huge thermal mass stuff. Louis Rossmann: The tools I use and why I bought them also recommends the FX-951, reinforcing my purchasing decision.

The T12 clone takes less than 10 seconds, like you also noted, and the element is fused with the tip (like you well know), so the lag is much, much smaller and thermal regulation is unsurprisingly better. In my Hakkos or in the Pace that I test I set one temp and solder almost all of the components without compromise. This was much easier with the Hakko FX-951 compared to the Pro’s Kit 353A, the tip providing a flat undamaged surface, maintaining temperature consistently. Like when you switch it on, change the temp, select a preset, swap tips, the mysterious absence of the control card that blocks the user interface, what do you think about entering temp offsets?I think I must have bought over a dozen different T12 tips and probably more than half are still unopened. To prevent the soldering iron from cooling down immediately when it is placed in the holder, it is possible to set a time between 0 and 29 minutes in which the iron remains warm. Product that complies with the regulated values of 10 substances prohibited by the european rohs directive.

Edit: I did such extensive testing partly cuz of STJ saying multiple times T12 clone >> 888 for 2 months straight. I would say get the FX-888, and with the money you saved get a hot air station and powered solder sucker (desoldering station) if you don't have them already. I soldered many audio cables, jacks, pots, and lots of other miscellaneous joints with it and only a couple of hakko chisel tips over the years. A solder station it's not an Android tablet with fancy software, it's a tool to solder at any adjust. The MCU was not properly soldered but that was easily fixable (took me a while to find the fault tho).It definitely takes about twice as long, but that greater mass in the tip is working FOR you once it reaches temp. Same recovering and perhaps in Pace worst tip to PCB transfer but nothing to blame to Pace itself, I have in my hakko biggest tip that I did have in the Pace demo and then notice better response in my Hakko than in the PCB but not using the same tip.