Desktop wave solder machine

Started by trev, June 25, 2019, 02:13:08 PM

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trev

Hi, has anyone any experience of wave soldering machines from china such as these?

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Torch-desktop-Automatic-wave-soldering-solder_60092334263.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normalList.41.60e54489iINwv2

Be nice to find one second hand in the uk. They work off single phase and do not appear to take up much space. No idea how good or bad they are.

Trev

phonoplug

I've recently bought a very similar size one from Grove. Contasold 265 it calls itself. Apparently its Swiss. Works well for me.

trev

May I ask was it expensive? If you prefer not to state on the forum maybe pm me? Not sure if pm always works though.

Is it fiddly to set up?

Trev

phonoplug

Paid a bit over a grand plus VAT. As was second hand it was full of lead free solder (~38kg) which I guess is probably worth a grand in itself. I've never used one myself before now though been around a couple (much larger) when I've taken boards elsewhere to be done. I was aware of the basics. Gary ran through it with me when I collected and pretty much was putting boards through reliably the first time I ran it up a couple of weeks later. I've done about 70 panels of boards with it now and generally pretty good results. Saved me many, many hours with a soldering iron!

trev

That sounds like the kind of deal I was really hoping to come across. Perfect solder joints and compact size machine. Maybe I need to put some ebay watch thing on and see if something comes up.

Contacted Grove and they haven't anything else second hand.

Trev


phonoplug

Yes I'd had an ebay watch on 'Wave solder' I think it was for probably 18 months. Originally not desperate to get one just seeing whats out there at what price. I was aware there were some small desktop machines that are 13A not 3 phase but they dont come up often. By the time this one came up just a couple of months ago I was ready to consider actually buying one and at that price I snapped it up!

You get some very large ones come up fairly often - don't think there is a great demand for them as TH parts are in decline, whereas the small neat ones seem to generate more interest.

Mickyblueeyes

I run a Litesold  soldermatic model 96/800 it is floor standing but small and plugs into a 13A socket, it does struggle a little with the higher lead free temperatures but I have been getting good results from it for 21 years.

I can't at this point see a time when I stop my through hole operation, almost every board I produce has a connector, capacitor or transformer etc that cannot be obtained in a surface mount version or as with wire to board terminal blocks it would be difficult to mount them any other way and produce a robust connection.


Mike

trev

Do people get clean boards from wave solder process or do they need cleaning afterwards?

Trev

trev

To answer my own question,  boards are clean straight out of a wave solder machine.