Soldering station from Maplin UK

[Vimto]

I'm gonna be doing my first soldering when the Whitefox arrived and was wondering if anyone has had experience with this Soldering Station from Maplin in the UK?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/60w-mains-lcd-solder-station-a55kj

Also reading various articles I've heard you can't get lead solder in the UK any more and was wondering what solder people would recommend

Apologies if this is the wrong section to put this question in.

[Connly33]

I haven't used that iron, but i have used a few low cost similar chinese model's. And that is definitely way ahead of any non controllable mains soldering iron, and should be fine if your not going to be doing a lot of soldering. I just got my first Hakko iron a couple months ago, a hakko FX888D for $80 USD. But i do a lot of electronics repair and for just a few projects now and then i think that iron would be great.

As for solder, if you can try to get lead solder, for longevity and ease of use its way better, I use a 60% tin 40% lead solder from Kester. But if you cant get any leaded solder there id still say try to go with a brand like Kester or Multi Core, using good quality rosin core flux solder is even more important for lead free solder. And make sure you find out what the recommended temperature is for the solder you use, required temp for lead free is a bit higher.

Im Actually building my first keyboard but i do have a fair amount of soldering experience. 

[darkclone24]

I bought that exact iron. It's good, does the job and has controllable temperature.

This site has some lead solder and lead flux, as well as some other irons you could look at:

http://www.pcb-soldering.co.uk/

I'd also suggest a good tip cleaner, instead of the awful sponge.

http://www.somersetsolders.com/460-tip-cleaner/p275

They also have some leaded tip tinner.

http://www.somersetsolders.com/tip-tinning-powder-leaded/p284

[Vimto]

Thanks for all the help and info.

[smknjoe]

If you have an iron that gets hot enough and some good lead free solder you should have absolutely no trouble using lead free solder. Heat is the biggest issue for most people I believe. I use a Weller WMRS with a WMP 80 watt iron and a good sized chisel tip along with some MG Chemicals 4900 solder ( 96.5% tin, 0.5% copper and 3% silver) and I have no problems at all with through hole or SMD. Keep in mind I commonly keep the heat cranked up to 750 F or higher for some larger components. If you like smaller diameter solder Kester makes some that is the same formula as the MG Chem, but a smaller dia.

[smknjoe]

...also, you don't need any special tinning compounds. Just make sure to "tin" your tip often with the solder you are using. A wet sponge is fine to use. It's just that smaller thermal capacity irons take longer to recover from the shock of the water. Solder and a wet sponge do a great job of tinning though.

[DreaMagine]

Does this solder station say what type of tip it comes with? Often the cheaper ones come with a large conical tip which is mostly useless. Chisel tip is what you will want to use most of the time. Maybe consider making sure you have one of those.