x-tronic 4000 soldering station

Weller makes about the best there is as far as soldering stations - we have about 5 of them.

Good luck on your project - if soldering wire to connectors make sure you get an iron with enough tip mass to do the job properly.

Peter

Avs9 - I'm not sure why you need station and not the soldering iron. Do you do any work with surface mount?

180degC iron is wrong. Eutectic 63/37 solder (or solder paste) melts at 183degC and it would take forever to solder. Flux would clean oxidation and then evaporate while oxidation would come back. Proper temperature is 700degF (371degC). You can go higher but then flux will evaporate before completing cleaning job. If your solder contains silver you need perhaps 800degF.

I would recommend simple Weller like that one: http://www.amazon.com/WTCPT-Temperature-Controlled-Soldering-Station/dp/B00004W463/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1335131348&sr=8-18

It has tips marked for different temperature ranges. Typical one for typical Eutectic solder (63/37) is marked 7 for 700degF (you can buy different tips) Iron is 60W and adjusts power switching on and off in precise temperature point. Tip's butt has pressed in end piece made of metal that has precise curie point of 700degF (temp point where metal looses magnetic ability). Behind end of tip is small magnet connected to switch. It works really well - seems to be immune to larger objects that sink heat (solders exactly the same small and large objects). It lasts forever and parts are replaceable. My company uses these soldering irons for at least 30 years.

If you want to work with surface mount you need different set of tools. For removal of resistor's and capacitors you need hot tweezers (two soldering irons will do) and for soldering you need syringe with "no clean" flux paste, very thin "no clean" solder (like 0.015") and small hot air pencil + very small temp controlled soldering iron (assuming practical way, right way requires syringe with solder paste). I assume that you can only do 50 mil pitch. For 25 mil pitch ICs you would need hot air column. 20 mil pitch is out of the question. You also need "no clean" solder wick. For thru-hole components all you need is 60W Weller iron.

Kijanki - thank you a lot for the response.
No surface mount work, at least for now, may be later, I am considering playing with capacitors in my CJ PV-12.
I guess you are correct that having the 180C lower iron limit is not practical since it will take a long time to solder as you said. I was gonna use the WBT 4% Ag.
But for now I need to wire the arm, do it a couple of times with different wires, Audio-Note silver arm wire, also C37 litz wire. Some other speakers wiring work as well.
So I was told the soldering station (I do have a very simple radio shack solder iron) will play better since I would be able to ajust the temperature easily. The heat gun could be used for shrinking the colored sleeves onto the cartridge clips.

Avs9, Hot air gun might be usefull for shrink tubing. I use standard large Wagner heat gun but smaller hot air gun or hot air pencil might be easier to use. If you plan to use different solders (different melting temp) then perhaps you need soldering iron with adjustable temperature (changing tips is less convenient). Look for at least 40W power. When your soldering station has adjustable air flow and temperature for hot air gun/pencil it will be useful in future for surface mount.

Hakko is well known but most likely more expensive. X-tronics looks like a very good bargain especially with magnifying glass lamp. I found model 4040 here for amazing $140 http://www.amazon.com/X-TRONIC-MODEL-4040-Soldering-MAGNIFYING/dp/B003TC8EQS

I also found review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC30-GUbgk4 You might want to find second part of it. His soldering of capacitor requires perhaps one second longer to make solder flow into the hole. I usually solder about another 2 seconds from the moment of melting.

If you are using WBT 0800(4% Ag); the melting point is 178/180 degrees C, according to my spool's label. No problems, at all, soldering at just slightly above that temp. If the lower limit of a soldering station is 180 degrees, so what? You can always increase the temp.