1. Not all soldering stations are expensive, and I'd recommend you get the Bakon 950D:
http://www.banggood.com/BAKON-950D-75W-Mini-Portable-Digital-Soldering-Station-with-T12-Tip-p-982824.html?rmmds=search
It's compatible with T12 tips, which can also be purchased fairly cheap:
Hey, that's quite a compact soldering station and could go in my toolbox (instead of taking up valuable shelf-space as with most soldering stations)
But I'm sceptical of all these cheap Chinese electrical gadgets (which is ironic as I suggested getting one of those eBay electrical solder suckers which I realized and wondered if I should get that electrical manual desoldering sucker from Farnell instead -it's definitely made in China like the rest, but at least there's got to be some sort of quality/safety control involved then).
So is the Bakon yet another clone of something, or something as seldom as an actual quality design on its own?
So T12 is the standard Hakko uses for tips, isn't it? And this means you basically get a cheap "almost Hakko" soldering station, especially if you use genuine Hakko tips?
I think you're being a bit harsh on the Chinese here to be honest.
You do realize that most electronics are made there nowadays (as well as plenty of other things), right? Even iphones are made there!
Just because something is made in China, it doesn't mean it's of poor quality, but doesn't guarantee it's of good quality either.
Personally, I've experienced both good and bad Chinese products, so each case to it's own.
Anyhow, I wouldn't really say it's a clone (as it doesn't attempt to directly imitate another soldering station), but it's made to work with Hakko T12 tips (and not custom made tips by the same manufacturer), so I guess you could say it's not a 100% original product.
But with that being said, despite it's low price, it has very good reviews all across the board, and seems to provide a good value for money.
And yes, you could use original Hakko tips with it, but it's not a must if you ask me. Even non-original tips can work well, and it's not like you're gonna have much problems with em. On Hakko 936 knockoff stations for example, the diameter of the heating element & internal diameter of non-original tips varies greatly, which creates a problem with heat transfer (due to the air gap). You're not gonna have that here (as T12 tips have the heating element integrated, so it's an all in one solution, and fits tightly enough on the handle) which means no issues of proper heat transfer.
Excuse my ignorance, but what's the problem with powering an iron directly from the mains? Does it have to do with electrostatic protection for sensitive components?
I couldn't find any English reviews on this iron, but loads of Russian ones -do you have the link? I'm not sure what you mean by "poor thermal transfer" -does it mean that the tip doesn't carry as much heat as it should, effectively making this a less powerful iron than it's actually supposed to be, according to its specs?
Well, it doesn't really pose a risk to the components you're working with (as long as it's 3pin and grounded at least)
But think about it this way, you're holding a device (of a fairly small diameter, and made of mostly plastic) in your hand, which is powered by dangerously high voltage... Most of the time, you'd probably be fine, but if you'd get really unlucky and at some point it'd malfunction (and again, you're holding it in your hand), you could end up with burn marks, electric shock, or get electrocuted!
The odds of this to happen are not that big I guess, but the risk is there nonetheless.
And here's the link to the PX201 review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vRKJauJeB4
It's in Russian, but as they say, a picture (or video in this case) is worth a thousand words!
Just look at the dude working on circuit boards with it in various parts of the video, where it can barely melt the solder!
It just doesn't look very promising.
Also, another useful way to desolder some things is to create a solder bridge across all pins (to heat up all of em at once), which makes it easier to pull em out.
That would be great for all the ICs I'm removing. Is that like a soldering iron tip with a flat "iron" you use to touch all the pins simultaneously? I suppose you need a pretty powerful iron for that sort of thing.
No, by solder bridge, I meant you should apply a lot of solder, so it'd practically cover all the pins in a single line (so when touched by the iron, all of em would get heated at the same time, so you could pull/lift em all up at once). Flux can also make it easier to create a soldering bridge btw.