Before you go jacking the settings on your 936 station, I HIGHLY suggest anyone interested in getting the best performance out of their Hakko go read the tehnical bulletins. There is a ton of great info in there—many things that I never knew.
A few small things about your Hakko:
- any cracks or depressions in the surface of the tip essentially render it useless, and it should be replaced
- when changing the tip or element, the station should be recalibrated
- more force or tip pressure does not mean more heat or better solder joints
- higher heat destroys a tip faster, and doesn't necessarily give you a better solder joint—you don't need to run max heat on the iron for it to work properly
- moving the iron across the surface reduces heat and ruins the surface of the tip
- dirty sponges can lead to premature tip failure and bad solder joints.
- household sponges shouldn't be used to clean tips, and distilled water should be used in the sponge to keep common water minerals off of the tip
- do NOT use any abrasive material to clean the tip, like a 3M pad, file or sandpaper—you will destroy the plating on the tip that allows it to work
- keep the tip tinned at all times
- iron reaches full operating temperature in 15 seconds
- keep iron shut off when you are not using it
There is plenty more in there, as well. I think tomorrow, I'll be ordering some new tips and sponges for my 936 station.
