On Tue, 25 Feb 2025, Greg Muir via groups.io wrote:
As of no trailing cables it is a misstatement. You STILL have a trailing
cable. It doesn't matter if it goes to a soldering station or to a mains
outlet.
You don't have a vacuum hose to a soldering station but you have a hammer
(motor/turnine) in your very hand that is supposed to do a precise delicate
job of proper positioning, than activating and deactivating vacuum. Then,
you have to struggle with a jump caused by motor rotor inertia when it
starts.
Now, for a proper desoldering iron you have a cable (which you STILL have on
that FR301) and a vacuum hose. The latter is very light and flexible and
adds almost nothing to the electrical cable you have no matter what. It is
the same diameter as your electrical cable, not a half-inch hose. As of desk
tool FR301 is an abomination, having a grace of a sledgehammer without ANY
benefits. I personally use Weller desoldering tools with my WR3M and WXR3
soldering stations on my desk. Have both straight and angled ones. They are
light, have no start torque, cable/hose is extremely soft, and they have
enough juice for 6-layer board.
The only reasonable use case for that sledgehammer of desoldering tool is
when one has to do some desoldering outside his desk, kinda like in the
field. I can't think of such a case but it might exist although it is
definitely a very rare one.
The only advantage of FR301 over my Weller irons (WXDP120/WXDV120 for WXR3,
more juice, and DSX80/DXV80 for WR3M, slightly more delicate and cheaper) is
one particular tip they have, an oval one. It is good for desoldering old
electrolytic cans (and some parts with flat leads). Unfortunately enough
Weller does not make anything like that. Don't know if anybody else does.
Same success as Dave previously mentioned.
I exclusively use the FR301 on every job for unsoldering components, etc. It successfully removes all solder from thru holes allowing leaded parts to be removed easily. It also works wonderfully on those boards where poorly experienced designers didn't follow the layout rules making the holes so small that it is nearly a press fit to get the lead to pass through.
Yes, it is somewhat large but the advantage of not having trailing cables or hoses certainly offsets any objections to the size.
I also recommend picking up a few various size tips for it.
Greg
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