I used to think the Hakko FX-888D was the only good iron until I tried a cheap Pinecil

Honestly, I've had my Hakko for years and thought it was the best. But last month, my friend in Austin let me borrow his Pinecil for a repair job on a Nintendo Switch. The heat up time was under 10 seconds and the USB-C power was way more handy for my bench setup. Has anyone else switched to a portable iron and been surprised?

3 comments

3 Comments

henryreed2mo ago

Guess your Hakko just got knocked off the throne. Portable irons are sneaky good.

the_ruby2mo ago

Hold on, I'm sticking with my Hakko. That quick heat up is cool for small stuff, but for real all day work, the bigger iron just holds heat better. It doesn't cool down when you touch it to a big ground plane. The Pinecil feels like a great travel tool, but my bench needs something that doesn't fight me on bigger joints.

iris3941mo ago

Wait, have you actually tried using a Pinecil on big ground planes though? I was exactly in your shoes last year, swearing by my old Weller station for anything with a ground pour. But then I had to do a bunch of repairs on a big power supply board, and my Weller kept dipping temp on me too. So I figured what the heck and grabbed a Pinecil, and honestly it surprised me. The trick is you just crank the temp up a bit more than you normally would, and the PD power delivery actually keeps the heat coming. It still cooled down a tiny bit on the biggest joints, but way less than I expected. I still keep my Hakko around for heavy production runs, but for bench work the Pinecil has become my go to now.