ok, so i've been in the hobby over a year now, and have racked up a pile of cars and motors and escs in my rc garage.

Up till now i've just been using a handheld pencil weller iron from lowes, and it is not cutting it..

So i'm going to buy a soldering station. My question is should i go weller or hakko? it seems like there is a tendancy in the rc community to go hakko, but weller parts seem more available? Is there any advantage of a digital station vs analog?

should i just go with the hakko 936 as it is always around 100 bucks and seems to the norm for rc? are replacement tips and such easy to come by?

any advice is appreciated

thanks

Hakko works great, I believe they are on sale now on the hakko site with a free decal wrap included for around 80$

You can get a Madell off of E-bay pretty reasonable. It's looks similar to the 936. I got one a few months back and it works awesome...

with the 936 get the medium/standard iron?

Go with the 908. The stock tip is good for smaller wires, and get the large chisel tip for connecting batteries and building packs.

Or get the weller wlc-200 and get the smaller tip.. This station allows you to turn down the iron when not in immediate use so as to not burn up the tip.

Get some Hakko 599b 'astropubes' to scrape off the junk that gets stuck to the tip:

I just looked on their site and did not see a thing about on sale and decal wrap???

I do remember in the RC mag they advertised that flame wrap on the 936 but I have yet to see it? You have a link to it

here it is, looks like it is still $80 including the skin and a free gift. Looks like shipping is extra :-(

http://www.hakkousa.com/detail.asp?CID=&PID=4593&Page=1

I just got mine in the mail today. The site said nothing about free shipping (unless thats what they are calling the free gift) but when my card was charged, there was no shipping charged. And the invoice in the box has a line item of free shipping promotion. Cant beat free shipping - but you'd think they'd have that plastered on their site as its a good promo

Anyways - so i've never had an iron that had any setting besides plug it in, and it gets hot.

What setting should i use for soldering wires to esc's and motors?

What setting for doing battery bars?