Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station FX-888D FX-888 (blue & yellow)

With a few different tips, Ive been able to use this with surface-mount parts (I even did some 0402 parts with this thing. Its a pain, but doable!), through-hole parts, and even some big ol transformer anchor lugs. First off, Im spoiled by the equipment I have access to at work, but thats a full-blown professional setup that costs three orders of magnitude more. (Yes, seriously.) With that in mind, here are my thoughts on this little soldering station: - Thermal control. THERMAL CONTROL. Every soldering device should have thermal control. It just makes life easier. This thing has it, and mine was calibrated well right out of the box. - It takes a 15 seconds or so to warm up. (again, spoiled rotten. By force of habit, I expect the tip to be at operating temperature within 2-3 seconds.) - It takes long enough to unscrew the tip that you really should wait for it to cool before swapping tips. Its possible, but Im clumsy enough that I almost burn myself way too often. - The handpiece is a bit bulky for surface-mount work. Id love to see a handpiece about half this things size for SMD work. - The main power cable isnt detachable. I initially placed the control unit up near head level, with the cable draped down to the stand on the bench. I like having detachable power cables; it makes rearranging cables or moving equipment a little easier to deal with. - And, while you can get tweezers for this station, it only has the one tool plug, so you wont be doing a multi-tool setup. Now. All of that being said, this thing is pretty awesome. For what I paid for it, I am quite happy with it; its been reliable and has done its job well. Its construction is quite robust, its temperature control, while not perfect, is acceptable, and its just flat out easy enough to use. My baseline for an excellent tool is one that becomes transparent to me -- I dont think them about while Im using them; they just work, easily and reliably. This soldering station really does meet that criteria. It doesnt have all the bells and whistles, but it gets the job done, time and again.

This is very affordable and high quality! Dont hesitate to buy this, its very quick! Very happy with this purchase, my only regret is I didnt buy this years ago. Live and learn yeah?