Why would a pro want to use something that costs so much more to maintain? Is it because of the lead free solder? I spend 3 seconds on each solder joint so if a pro can spend 1 second per joint I can see the reason for buying expensive tips. But remember, I am always using leaded.
it's DEsoldering station - it is a unit with a bellow pump in it and then there is a gun shaped hand held - it has a massive tip on the end that has a hole in it, different tips have different sized holes - you use some solder and stick the tip over a through-hole solder joint, heat it through and suck the solder out. The problem is this is not good for the tips, they get gauged and bashed frequently by component legs, you can't tin the end at all really because of the shape, and after a while the tip between the hole and the outside of the tip starts to disintergrate - the more the hole loses it's integrity right at the end the worse your thermal interface becomes, and then you have to add more and more solder as a heat bridge or you start to mess up pcbs or just have crap desoldering abilities. It's worth it - becuase when really concentrating you can desolder a full 105 board in about 15 - 20 minutes.
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Now everything makes sense!
The tip would definitely cost far more since it has a much more complicated shape/ harder to make.
It would die more easily because it is so much harder to tin properly.
But 'bashed by component legs'? You're not talking about keyboards alone are you? Because I can see that happening with some components, but not Cherry MX switch legs or LEDs in general.
Desoldering is definitely a huge pain for double sided PCB. But that speed suggests you need maybe 750 seconds for 420 joints, which means 1.6 seconds per joint. It's undoubtedly a big boon.
I still see no reason for people to spend too much money on their
soldering stations though. If we're talking keyboards or the PCBs we can see in daily life eg TV, monitor, computer, how often do we really get big solder joints? Most of the time it's more like frustratingly teeny weeny joints that require teeny weeny tips and presumably very little heat, 20w or whatever, just because the pads are so tiny. Why would pros want to apply powerful heat to joints the size of a teensy pad for instance? I personally (from disastrous teensy experience) would prefer a very agile/small tip, power below 30w, and to use a 0.5mm or smaller solder wire on most of the joints that I will ever need to solder in a modern household.
being a noob my experience doesn't count for much. I'm just wanting to hear what the pros think. Their reasoning must be right -but why is it right?