I'm considering purchasing a hot-air soldering station to help solder SMC
boards. The Madell 8502 (for example) is a fraction of the cost of some of
the other 'big name' hot air soldering stations. Does anyone have any
experience with this brand?

The same unit may be marketed under the Sunkko label, the units look very
similar on the Web.

Any comments appreciated.

Peter

--
Peter D. Hiscocks
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ryerson University,
350 Victoria Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Phone: (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Fax: (416) 979-5280
Email:
URL: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock

Peter Hiscocks wrote:
I'm considering purchasing a hot-air soldering station to help solder SMC
boards. The Madell 8502 (for example) is a fraction of the cost of some of
the other 'big name' hot air soldering stations. Does anyone have any
experience with this brand?

No comments on this unit, but IMHO you will greatly benefit from a
pre-heater when using an air pencil. It will make the air pencil much
faster / easier to use, and completely eases the struggle with
(de-)soldering to large copper pours. See http://www.zeph.com for some.

Richard

"Peter Hiscocks" wrote in message
...
I'm considering purchasing a hot-air soldering station to help solder SMC
boards. The Madell 8502 (for example) is a fraction of the cost of some of
the other 'big name' hot air soldering stations. Does anyone have any
experience with this brand?

The same unit may be marketed under the Sunkko label, the units look very
similar on the Web.

Any comments appreciated.

Peter
I have an 850B. Quite happy with it.

Mostly it is used during prototype stage to remove a chip or two. With a
little practice I am getting 144 pin TQFPs off boards without seriously
damaging the pads. That is to say, all the pads are still on the board!
But mostly it is used to remove smaller parts like op-amps when somebody
wants to try a different part.

Rob Young

"Peter Hiscocks" wrote in message
...
I'm considering purchasing a hot-air soldering station to help solder SMC
boards. The Madell 8502 (for example) is a fraction of the cost of some of
the other 'big name' hot air soldering stations. Does anyone have any
experience with this brand?

I don't know the Madell. I recently bought an Atten 850D hot air station
from Acifica (http://shop.vendio.com/evan2002), have used it for SMD part
removal as you describe, and am happy with it. Just based on part number
and the fact it comes from China, I expect it's similar to what you're
looking at, maybe with different features (the 850D has some extra
features). I haven't tried soldering, only unsoldering. It was inexpensive
but seems to do the job fine. Acifica was fine to deal with; I got quick
responses from a human being, and shipment was quick.

No relationship with Atten or Acifica other than "satisfied customer."

I just bought the 850D. The reason why was that the 850D has more power
then the 9802, 850B etc. I am not sure if it makes the difference but I
talked with a number or people who reccomend the D model. Check out
Howardelectronic.com they have a lot of info on SMD stuff.

"Peter Hiscocks" wrote in message
...
I'm considering purchasing a hot-air soldering station to help solder SMC
boards. The Madell 8502 (for example) is a fraction of the cost of some of
the other 'big name' hot air soldering stations. Does anyone have any
experience with this brand?

The same unit may be marketed under the Sunkko label, the units look very
similar on the Web.

Any comments appreciated.

Peter

--
Peter D. Hiscocks
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ryerson University,
350 Victoria Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Phone: (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Fax: (416) 979-5280
Email:
URL: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock