Weller WE-1010 worst soldering station on the planet

[johnnyreece]

I'm still using an old Xytronic station I got in the early oughts. It still had the dial for temperature control. I bought my son an updated version with a digital temperature select. So far, so good.

[TUBEDUDE]

For the last decade or so I've been using this Tenma unit. It works great, has three temp presets and was about $60. I use it with a cheap Anesty de-soldering unit, which is less than ideal.
I'd like to have the Pace workstation i used at work, but $$$!

[martin manning]

I recently bought a WE-1010 station for someone as a gift, and fired it up for the first time a few days ago with the intent to teach the recipient how to use it. The station itself is fine, but the tip it came with was garbage. It quickly became blackened and could not be tinned properly. Tried tip cleaner without success. Replaced it with a spare from my WESD51 and all was good. A quality issue with the coating on the tp, I'd guess.

[nuke]

I recently bought a WE-1010 station for someone as a gift, and fired it up for the first time a few days ago with the intent to teach the recipient how to use it. The station itself is fine, but the tip it came with was garbage. It quickly became blackened and could not be tinned properly. Tried tip cleaner without success. Replaced it with a spare from my WESD51 and all was good. A quality issue with the coating on the tp, I'd guess.

Agree, the tip life is terrible on the WE1010.

But it uses the same tips for all the "pro" models with the similar electronic/thermistor temperature controller. I don't understand what is going on there. The tips will get black spots on them and won't tin well, even with tip-tinner leaded or lead-free tinner.

I sort of think it might be going back and forth between leaded and lead free work.

Meanwhile, the old WTCPT soldiers on, although the newer ones with the detachable iron stand always breaks off the tabs on the transformer, making the stand permanently detached.

It seems like Curie point irons work so, so much better than electronic irons. I know we used to leave the WTCPT and the MetCal stations on all day in the labs (which in Silicon Valley equates to something like 80-100 hours a week).

[sluckey]

Meanwhile, the old WTCPT soldiers on, although the newer ones with the detachable iron stand always breaks off the tabs on the transformer, making the stand permanently detached.

I prefer to leave the stand detached. The base sits on the back of the bench and the iron stand is free to move to a convenient spot.

[martin manning]

Agree, the tip life is terrible on the WE1010.

The life of this particular tip was just a few minutes. After that it was unusable.

[flemingmras]

I, too, replaced my WES51 with a WE-1010NA. The tip it came with oxidized within the first few minutes of operation. Replaced the tip and it works beautifully. Keep it set at 650°F, which, for most solder joints, will more than suffice.

From what I understand, they had a QC issue with a batch of their tips. Some of these new irons are still floating around with that bad batch of tips. Replace it and all your problems disappear.

Once the tip goes black, it doesn't come back.

[nuke]

I have a whole set of tips in different sizes, and they're all kinda crap.

Using the MG Chemical's "tip tinner" will bring them back for a while. But they just seem to want to turn to poo pretty fast.

My old WTCP soldiers on, but I can't get the variety of tips I need for it anymore.

Maybe I'll just pop for a Hakko or some such next time.

[sluckey]

My old WTCP soldiers on, but I can't get the variety of tips I need for it anymore.

Amazon and eBay still have a variety of tips for that iron.