Rework Station Burst Into Flames

[BadLot]

So I got this rework station on ebay.

http://i21.ebayimg.com/04/i/001/1c/6c/e192_2.JPG

Well after using it for two days, the soldering iron tip wore away. It went from a fine point to a stump. But that's not the worst part. I was happily removing some bga chips at about 400C and sat the heat gun on its stand to cool down. I walked away to do something else and when I came back it was melting and flames were shooting out. I grabbed it and tried to blow out the flame, but every time I blew it out, it would come right back. 5 minutes and loads of plastic fumes later I called my friend from the other room and he unplugged the damn thing and helped me put it out. We managed to snap a pic of it smoldering too!

http://i44.tinypic.com/121u2hs.jpg

Now the seller is being unresponsive, surprise surprise! We bought another rework station from mpja and it hasn't caught on fire yet. Our soldering station from there has been using the same tip for a whole year. Any idea what happened to the tip on this one? I remember the little butane soldering irons (also china!) had the same problem and we never figured it out. I guess the lesson here is beware of shitty equipment... Fix the pics please if possible. Thoughts?

 

[PottedMeat]

Are you rubbing the tip up against solid metal? I had a Hakko pencil iron a long time ago where the tip basically disintegrated. I think I gouged out some of the coating and in a few days the tip was gone. If you properly clean / tin the tip it will last for years.

 

[BadLot]

Nope, tinned it right away. Not rubbing it against anything, unless a capacitor leg gouged it. Maybe the coating was paper thin.

 

[dkozloski]

They told me in NASA soldering school fifty years ago that high quality copper soldering iron tips are electroplated with pure iron to prevent erosion by the molten solder.

 

[BadLot]

high quality

 

[Smoove910]

Go with Metcal solder irons and tips. The tips are awesome because they have a thermocouple inside which senses the temp, and adjusts on the fly. Also, they take literally seconds to heat up rather than waiting.

Just my .02

 

[mindless1]

This might be a silly question but isn't it most likely you failed to turn it off before putting it in the stand and so the heat built up?

Another silly question, why wait 5 minutes to unplug it? Isn't that the first thing to do?

 

[PCBeal23]

The stand usually acts in heat dissipation, but it sounds like the thermo sensors in the station probably blew, which caused it to send too much current through the wand and melted the plastic.

I've worked with a few different irons in my day . . . as few as they may be. I've found the Weller branded irons to be top notch, though finding one that has removable tips has been a hassle, as of late.

I rarely trust anything from China, nowadays though, sometimes it is hard to pass up what appears to be a good deal.

Good luck finding a replacement, though.

 

[Koharski]

Sorry to tell you this but the way ebay is going these days i'd be willing to bet that 95% of the items being sold in large quantities is either dropshipped from china or bulk purchased from there.

i'd know because I used to make a killing doing it.