Homebrew PCBs

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:22 PM, Henry Liu <henryjliu@...> wrote:

>
> I bought a Hot Air + Solder Station from Ebay for $100 shipped a while
> ago. Search "852D solder*" and you will find it.

I've been using a very similar hot-air, soldering station combo (most
likely from the same manufacturer) for almost 3 years now. It hasn't
seen very heavy use but I can say that it withstood some abuse. I only
needed to change the soldering iron at some point, but spares for
these machines are commonly and cheaply available where I live. They
are definitely worth the price, and they are great for hobbyist work,
but I know that many cell phone repair guys use them.

There is another manufacturer that also has very good prices for
similar equipment. Just like most stuff from these Chinese factories
they sell the same equipment under many different brands (like
TT-Technic or Marxlow, funny names really). These are a bit more
advanced as they seem to be fully digitally controlled, and they have
nice custom LCD displays. I've used them too, they are also quite good
and probably of even better build quality than the 852D / 803 etc. but
I personally did not like the soldering iron on them as I found it was
a bit awkward and too large.

>
> As a side note, I'm surprised how cheap volume assemble costs. Guys
> in Thaind will assemble your components by hand (SMD and through
> hole) for $3-8 a board with no minimum.
>

This is actually quite interesting to hear, especially the "no
minimum" part. Do you have any pointers (links etc.) to these Thailand
guys? I'd also like to hear more about any experiences you (or anyone
else here for that matter) may have with them...

-Tolga