FX601-02 - Soldering Iron with High Heat Capacity

Bought this because I was doing two panels with an old Weller on a temperature controller that was very fussy about keeping a consistent temperature. With stained glass it is plug in, wait to heat up, solder, wipe, wait, repeat. Except waiting for it to get back up to temperature took longer and longer, even when wiping it clean with a dry bronze wool pad rather than a moist sponge. Sometimes it would just take a break and not really announce itself, so I'd have to set it aside and admire my unfinished work for a bit before it decided it was ready to work again. Sure, it's probably 20-30 years old, but I was only asking for some consistency. Bought this at the tail end of the project and this is a dream soldering iron. Light, with a temperature controller on the handle, the Hakko fires up quickly and maintains it's temperature so that you can get work done faster and bead the solder better and easier. The ceramic core keeps the heat steady and even when wiping down with the moist sponge, this comes back to temperature so quickly you don't miss a step. I've known lots of people doing stained glass who bought iron after iron looking for the one that made their soldering look good. The problem was always trying to find an iron with a consistent temperature and ability to recover from the cleaning process. Some people never really got the knack of listening to the rhythms of the iron. And as their irons got older, itheygot a bit more touchy about heating up and staying heated up. This might just be the solution they were looking for. Certainly, the old Weller is going into my drawer in favor of this little beauty. Treat her gently, use the old temperature controller for a dimmer switch on some lamp and have at it with this one. This is an iron that is well worth the money and probably the only iron you'll need. Starting out, get one iron and make it this one.

Easily the best iron I have used for stained glass projects. The cord is very heavy duty, so any accidental burns won’t immediately slice through the cord. The cord is also a decent length to make plugging in easier. The temperature dial on the iron it’s self is great - you don’t need to buy a separate item to plug into to keep the temperature stable. It is also very handy if you work with different blends of solder so you can easily adjust up or down. There is a light on the handle that indicates when the iron is heated up and ready to use, and typically takes less than a minute to heat up. This was my first iron from when I started 6 years ago and it is still going strong. I purchased these for all of my classroom kits and expect them to last for years to come.

Excellent soldering iron for making copper foil stained glass. Easy to use, lightweight and nice temperature control

Good price and works very well.

Great for stained glass work.

I highly recommend this iron for foiled stained glass. (I haven't worked with lead came at all, so cannot comment on how this iron works for that.) This iron heats up extremely fast, has high heat capacity for those long solder beads, has temperature control (no rheostat needed) and just works. This will be our main iron for stained glass. It's probably also good for electronics, at least with smaller tips.

I solder, alot. All of my solder beads are just that, beads. This is the first soldering iron I have used to where, I don't have a tiny bead, I can just solder with a perfect connection and it just looks like the wire is tinned. I am like a jeweler with this thing. I got a chisel and needle tip for precise soldering and I am surprised that I get as minimal of a solder with the chisel as I do the needle. I have an almost threadlike solder I use now and I can put that solder exactly where I want it to go without any blobbing, mess or just not getting it right. I can desolder cleanly. For soldering, it is the best tool I have found.

This is the second one of these we've purchased for our stained glass group here at Oak Hammock CCRC. We got the first one, and everyone wanted to use that one instead of the larger tipped Weller 80 units. It's much lighter feel and very fast warm up are great. Solders beautifully and the ability to adjust the temperature with a simple knob on the handle makes it work well even for heavy wire or zinc framing. But it has a few irritating drawbacks: 1. The power cabel for it is very stiff and heavy and seems to always catch on the corner of the table or your board, or knocks over containers of flux if you're not careful. Moving to a lighter cord would be a very big improvement. This cord is such a contrast with the very light weight of the iron itself. 2. The temperature control knob on the handle if too flat and hard to grip. This coupled with it being hard to turn makes it an irritation when you want to move the temp up or down. 3. I'm not sure the calibration of the temperature settings are consistent. With the first unit we bought a setting of 360 degrees C. was fine for soldering foil, but on the second one that same setting barely would melt the solder. Despite this issues, it's still our group's iron of choice.

The seller sold me a defective product and I was unable to return it in the return window and now I'm stuck with a solder iron that doesn't heat up. The product comes from the US hence it is so expensive. It is half the price to get it from the official hakko branch called Sumitron in Delhi.

Excelente producto y muy rapida la entrega Es la primera vez que compro en amazon y me deja muy buena impresion

Good quality. Love the temperature adjustment.

Produit défectueux, ne fonctionne pas, le vendeur refuse un changement faute de 30 jours passé. Ce fer n'a jamais fonctionné, ne s'allume pas, le vendeur refuse de contacter le fabricant pour faire appliquer la garantie, il dit que c'est a moi de le faire via un lien, JAMAIS un autre VRAI pro m'a fait cela, le vendeur est l'interlocuteur est responsable des produits qui vend. A éviter a tout prix.

Really like this soldering iron Temp control is a plus Small tip to do stained glass