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I am new to cell phone repair and would like to get into microsoldering. I have a budget of about $200. I have been looking at the Aoyue 866 All in 1 Digital Hot Air Rework Station with Pre-Heater as well as the 992DA 4in1 SMD Hot Air Rework Soldering Iron Station Fume Extractor. Will these work for my needs? Also can I use a camera or magnifying lens to handle the magnification? Is a microscope essential? Thank you so much for your help.
I guess the first question is why? Are you looking at doing this as part of your repair business or is this more of a hobby/sideline work. That makes a big difference. If this is for your business, I would say you need to invest more. That said, some techs do amazing work with limited tools but the cost is hidden in the long hours of practicing and perfecting technique to compensate for the shortcomings of the tools. The second question is what? What you plan to repair also makes a big difference; large multi-layer boards, high density smartphone logic boards, massive GPU’s or small surface-mount passives? In general you need equipment that can deliver massives amount of heat very quickly. The lower cost stations often struggle with that. In general, most people who do serious work generally outgrow their Aoyue-type tools pretty quickly. Without getting in to the expensive stuff (higher end Hakko, JBC, Weller etc), you could look at the Quick 861DW Hot Air Station or the Hakko FX-888 Soldering iron. If you are just looking for hobby equipment, then the Aoyue stations will work fine to get you started. I would check out the forum at the EEVBLOG…lots of detailed discussions over there. Come back and tell us more about what you want to do.
Yeah, you can get away with one of those setups. I got mine for $30, and already started successfully tackling a bunch of board level repairs. Now I’m putting more money into my lab. The microscope. I dunno. I feel like it’s pretty essential. Also you can get a $200 amscope one. My scope is worth $1200 retail. Paid $600 with the camera. After that it’s really a lot of flux and practice and fail and practice
