Dave.S.
I can assure you I'm not a wealthy techie
I repair Lowe HF receivers for free as a service to the user community so I am no businessman either !
I have built up my current inventory of equipment over 30+ years and have been an electronics hobbyist since the age of 7 when I repaired cassette recorders and radios. Recently I did a refresh of some of the equipment and I will admit it has cost me more than I would have liked, but you have to equip for the latest technologies if you intend to service them.
As a hint that I may regret making public...I often buy faulty test equipment that people tend to shy away from and then repair it. Some are easy (like the UTD-1025C) others are royal pains and take a lot of time and effort BUT buying a multi thousand dollar piece of test equipment and repairing it, all for a total coat of less than $100 does give me a buzz
I have done this often and its usually PSU related faults that are cheap to repair.
With regard to my soldering kit.... I used to use a Weller Magnastat soldring iron and it is still on my bench. I was gifted two more and a Weller desoldering station as the commercial world is moving to newer technologies. I was in the right pace at the right time. The Pace soldering kit has all been purchased in 2011 when I upgraded my capability to SMD working. All of my Pace equipment was bought from ebay auctions. A brand new ST45 soldering station with PS70 iron and stand cost me GBP45
A real bargain. I purchased some used, but great condition, PS40A clever digital soldering stations very cheaply (around GBP30 I think) One had a good PS70 iron whilst the other had a well used older IR-1 iron. I have since bought three brand new PS70 irons at GBP30 each which is great considering the elements are more than GBP70each. There was an analogue Pace base station being sold for around GBP20 so I bought that as well just in case I needed an extra base station in the future. The Pace VF100 desoldering gun is a work of art and true industrial quality. That cost me GBP60 brand new in the box from a recycling seller on ebay. They normally cost a small fortune new from Pace ! The W.E.P hot air and soldering station cost me GBP80 new and delivered from a UK seller. The Aoyue hot air station came from an ebay recycling seller and was stated as having a faulty LED display segment. It cost me GBP29 and the fault was just a poorly seated chip on the display board. Its as new as it was a customer return. I bought a bran new pair of OKI SMD soldering tweezers for GBP16 from a recycling seller on ebay in the hope of modifying a base unit to run them, or find a cheap OKI base unit. After 6 months I purchased a perfect condition OKI digital base station for GBP20 so I have an industrial quality professional soldering tweezers set for just GBP36
My last purchase was a lovely Aoyue (CSI branded) desoldering gun for through hole work. It cost around GBP60 and works like a charm. For information, the diaphragm pumps in my hot air and desoldering stations are ALL quiet in operation and produce virtually no noticeable vibration on the bench. Buyers MUST remove the transit lock down screws as failing to do so make the unit very noisy and causes masses of vibration. This has been the cause of some customer returns when the user did not read the manual. Again, you can win if you buy such from a recycler
Just remove the 1 to 3 red screws an all is well. If a unit with a diaphragm pump vibrates or is very noisy, something is wrong and should be investigated.
have recently purchased a PACE TF200 ThermoFlow hot air station for a very reasonable sum. It is without the heater cartridge....the heaters cost GBP500 (yes GBP500!) so no surprise that there was little interest in this superb unit. When working, it can deliver accurate heat in a process controlled manner with ramp up, maintain and ramp down sequences for BGA work and similar
I bought it because I like a challenge. I have done some investigation of the design and discovered that I can probably use a cheap Chinese sourced heater assembly designed as a high quality replacement for the 852DE Auoye stations. The heater has the required voltage rating, wattage and thermocouple built in to the tip
The other challenge was to modify the handpiece and to make a heat tube for the element. The answer was to buy a Chinese replacement 852D+ standard handpiece and use it as a replacement part or a parts donor. The cost to date of this ongoing modification...GBP5 for the high quality ceramic insulator element and GBP8 for the 852D+ handpiece. The unit was worth every penny I paid for it in terms of the fun I am having solving the puzzle of how to fit a different heater and heat tube. When its working it will be a great SMD tool to use.
As you can see, it is possible to equip yourself with very good quality equipment for a reasonable price and significantly less than buying new of similar quality. I take great pride in my equipment and tools but I am not too proud to buy used equipment and then repair or restore it to its former glory. For me that is part of the joy of electronics.
My advice is t search for a local industrial electronics recycling company, they tend to have vast piles of amazing kit that they just wish to shift quickly for a small profit per item with no guarantee or warranty given. I have a 'pet' recycling company in my town, and can pick up equipment that is heavy and so avoid postage costs as well
Rohde and Schwartz, Marconi, HP...... all manner of equipment is often 'binned' by big commercial workshops and labs when they are too old for manufacturer support or calibration failures.
Aurora
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