Recommended Repair Equipment

The below recommendations are general recommendations for equipment targeted toward hobbyists looking to repair or mod electronics.

Digikey, Mouser, and other well-known electronic stores are almost assuredly genuine products. When in doubt, most manufacturers have lists of authorized resellers on their websites.

Repair Equipment

Thermal Interface Material (Paste/Pads/PTM)

Thermally conductive materials made to eliminate air gaps between a processor and its heatsink.

General recommendations:

• Viscus long-lasting paste (especially when changing paste on direct die consoles, such as the Xbox 360)

Paste suggestions:

• Arctic Silver Ceramique 2
• Thermal Grizzly Duronaut
• Arctic MX-7
• Arctic MX-4

Phase Change Material (PTM) suggestions:

This type of paste is solid at room temperature, but turns into a liquid when heated up to CPU/GPU operating temperatures.

• Honeywell PTM7950
• Thermalright Heilos V2 (resold PTM7950)
• Thermal Grizzly Phasesheet

Isopropyl alcohol (IPA)

Used to clean up dirt or burned flux after soldering.

General recommendations:

• 91% or higher IPA
• The only inactive ingredient is purified water (NOT glycerine)
• Cotton swabs for wiping up
• Soft bristle toothbrush for gently scrubbing between pins and components

While some say it's a waste to buy 99% IPA due to the idea that it will quickly evaporate, one study shows that it would take 48 hours in an open wide-mouth container for 10% of it to evaporate. Ideally, you should keep the cap on the bottle of IPA and only pour out a small amount into a container at a time, or use a small spray bottle to apply small amounts in a controlled manner.

Double-check the inactive ingredients before purchasing to ensure that it only contains alcohol and purified water and not glycerin, which will leave a residue. It can be found at most pharmacies along with cotton swabs (Q-Tips) and a soft bristle toothbrush.

Product suggestions:

• Cheapest from local pharmacy or in bulk

Multimeter

Used to diagnose issues and check soldering work.

General recommendations:

Very useful for checking your work by testing continuity between two points to make sure your solder joints and connections are good without having to power on the device.

It also allows you to check for breaks in circuits on boards and to measure live voltage to ensure it's operating correctly. Essentially, all multimeters have continuity testing and voltage reading; cheap ones will do too. Some may read voltage incorrectly or bleed power into circuits, however.

Product suggestions:

• Extech MN25 MiniTec
• Fluke (any model)

Electric duster (optional)

Used to blow dust out of consoles and PCs.

General recommendations:

While traditionally people use cans of "compressed air" (actually butane) to remove dust and dry IPA from under chips, a electronic blower can do the same things for much cheaper in the long-run and with less environmental impact.

Most units come with multiple speed settings, so you can use higher settings to blow dust out of consoles or PCs much easier. Proper air compressors are also effective, but beware of the cleanliness (grease, condensation) of the output. Proper air compressors are also extremely large, whereas electric dusters can easily be stored away in a drawer.

Product suggestions:

• Eclipse Tools MS-C002 Mini Vacuum & BSolderinglowing Cleaner
• Compucleaner Xpert

Soldering Equipment

Be careful about ordering name brand soldering irons and supplies from online marketplaces like Amazon. Hakko/Kester/etc products sold by third-parties on these stores are frequently cheap counterfeits which may not be safe.

Soldering iron

The handheld pen used to solder and the base station it is attached to.

General recommendations:

• Station with a knob or buttons to control the regulated temperature.
• 60W or greater
• Direct heat iron (T12/T15 tips, JBC tips, or TS tips)

Cheap irons generally do not have a base, and even if they may have a "temperature" control, it is not thermostatically regulated, so they will drop heavily in temperature whenever you are actively soldering a pad while being likely to overheat a PCB when the temperature is turned up to compensate, leading to the misconception of high-wattage irons being undesirable for fine work.

Hakko is the top name brand that makes fantastic products (except for the FX-888D, which is a poor performer), but there are plenty of clones that will do the job for a fraction of the price. It is recommended to avoid 2-in-1 stations, which usually have poor-quality irons. Irons should last a long time, but their main weak point is twisting the cable too much and causing an internal break.

Soldering Iron Suggestions:

• JBC-CD-2BQF
• AxxSolder (open-source)
• Generic C245 Station (such as TC22, T200, TA305, Sugon A9, etc.)
• KSGER T12 Station
• Quicko/Quecoo T12-958/959 Station
• T12-942 or T12 "mini" (requires external power supply)
  • Also has open-source options
• Pine64 Pinecil (portable)
• Sequre SI012 Pro Max (portable)
• Fnirsi HS02 (portable)
• Miniware TS-100/101 Iron (portable)
• Hakko FX-951 Station

Solder

The spool of metal that you melt.

General recommendations:

• Leaded solder with rosin-core
  • 63/37 or 60/40
  • Do not use low-melt (bismuth) solder unless you specifically need to
• Never use acid-core/plumbing solder!

Lead-free solder has a higher melting point and is a little harder to work with since you have to heat the target pads to a higher temperature for them to bond. The only time you absolutely need to use lead-free solder is if you are selling a product and live in a country - such as the United States - which requires all products to use lead-free solder.

Always use a rosin-core solder for hand-soldering. If you cannot get rosin-core solder, always apply plenty of external flux.

Product suggestions:

• Kester 63/37 or 60/40 rosin-core 0.031"
• MG Chemicals 63/37 or 60/40 rosin-core 0.032"

Brass wool

Used to clean your iron tip.

General recommendations:

• Brass (NOT STEEL!) wool with a small metal container

This is an alternative to a wet sponge for keeping your soldering iron tip in good condition. Dipping your iron tip into brass wool will absorb any excess solder and residues from the tip, help scrape off any oxidation on your tip, and spread solder evenly across the tip without drastically dropping the tip temperature like a sponge would. Most collected debris can be dumped out of the brass wool container or shaken loose.

It is important to use brass wool over steel wool, as brass is a 3 on the Mohs Hardness scale and therefore will not damage your iron tip, which is plated with iron (hardness of 4), chrome (hardness of 8.5), and nickel (hardness of 4). Brass wool is also convenient as you do not have to keep a sponge wet.

Product suggestions:

• Hakko 599B
• Generic

Flux

A liquid or paste that removes oxidized metal from surfaces, seals out air to create a stronger bond, and affects surface tension to make solder easier to control.

General recommendations:

• Non-corrosive
• No-clean paste/liquid
• Needle applicator

Non-corrosive means it will be safe on plastics and metals. No-clean means the flux is not only non-conductive but also non-corrosive. Thus, imperfect cleanup, such as flux stuck under a component, will not corrode over time.

Paste flux is recommended as it is easier to control during application. Thus, most of the high-quality fluxes are pastes.

Do NOT use any kind of acid flux (used in plumbing or automotive industries), as it is very aggressive and can damage nearby components and is often electrically conductive.

If using a liquid flux, it's best to buy a 2oz bottle with a needle applicator, as it makes application much more precise and you only need to use a drop at a time. If you do run out, you can refill it with a larger bottle.

Always be sure to clean ALL flux residue, regardless of whether it's "no-clean" or not. Be careful when selecting a no-clean flux, as some are corrosive until fully heated and are intended for wave soldering, not board rework. However, the below products are safe to use.

Product suggestions:

• Stirri ASM-TF (previously Amtech NC-559-ASM-TF, same flux)
• Stirri V3/V4/V5-TF
• Amtech VS-213-A-TF
• Kester 959T (liquid bottle)
• Kester 951 (liquid pen)
• MG Chemicals 8341 (paste)

Desoldering wick (braid)

Used to wick up solder from pads

General recommendations:

• Braid with quality flux

Some wick works better than others. The flux built-in to the wick has a lot to do with that. Place the braid over the pad you wish to desolder and apply your iron on top of the wick, and continue to apply heat until the wick is either fully saturated or the pad is clean. Cut the saturated parts of the wick off. Allow the pad to cool before re-wicking. Do not remove your iron before removing the wick, or the wick will be soldered to the pad, and you risk tearing a pad off.

Product suggestions:

• MG Chemicals 426-LF Super Wick (or non -LF if you only plan to work with leaded)
• Gootwick
• NTE SW-02-XX (XX is 2 digits for size)

Heat-shrink tubing

Used to cover exposed wire-to-pin or wire-to-wire connections.

General recommendations:

• Mix pack of different sizes as opposed to rolls of one size

Heat shrink is essentially all the same no matter where you buy it from. A mix pack of many sizes is useful, as you can just slip the size you need over the exposed metal and heat it with a hair dryer or hot air station (on low heat) to shrink it. There are several types, but most have 3 defining factors. The first is the ratio. The most common (read: cheap) heat shrink is a 2:1 ratio, which means it shrinks down to around half its size when heat is applied. (1/4" heat shrink shrinks to 1/8"). Some higher quality heat shrink is 3:1 or even, rarely, 4:1. The second factor is if the heat shrink has adhesive or not. This is an interior lining that is similar to hot glue, which prevents the wire or connector from moving. Adhesive heat shrink is typically thicker and also less flexible. The last factor is the number of walls. This also affects flexibility; more walls means less flex.

Product suggestions:

• Mix pack of sizes, any brand
• Techflex Shrinkflex (comes in rolls, has specialty types like fabric)

Wire strippers

Used to strip ends of wires.

General recommendations:

Any wire strippers will work so long as they support your wire gauge (AWG). Most strippers will do a range of sizes. Some are automatic; these are usually poor unless very high quality.

Product suggestions:

• Platinum Tools 15005C ProStrip 16/30 Wire Stripper (can strip 18-32 AWG)
• Weidmuller M-D-STRIPAX +6 MEHA (18-36 AWG Automatic wire stripper)

Fume extractor (optional)

Filter harmful and annoying fumes.

General recommendations:

The rosin and flux used in soldering or present on old motherboards will create fumes that are potentially harmful and may get in your line of sight. Contrary to belief, these fumes do not contain lead if you are using leaded solder. While pre-built options exist, it's a simple project to build your own using an old PC fan, some cheap filter material, and a USB cable. Alternatively, a bathroom fan can be used and plugged into an outlet.

Product suggestions:

• Any brand

Silicone mat (optional)

Insulated soft work surface.

General recommendations:

Provides a soft work surface that can't be melted or burned by a soldering iron.

Product suggestions:

• Weller WLACCWSM1-02 or WLACCWSM2-02
• Any brand

Kapton tape (optional)

Insulated tape for wire and hot air work.

General recommendations:

Lightweight non-conductive thermally-isolating tape, usually transparent yellow, that keeps wires held down and protected. Useful to cover nearby exposed pads and components when using hot air to protect them.

Avoid cheap tape. They typically fail to hold well.

Product suggestions:

• Saint Gobain K201 1/2" or 1"

Helping hands (optional)

Used to hold components or wire at the desired angle.

General recommendations:

Bendable arms connected to a heavy base with alligator clips on the end are used to hold components or wire at a convenient angle for you. You can also include a magnifying glass to see smaller pads. You can make your own out of a hunk of metal (such as an old hard drive), alligator clips, flexible coolant hoses, and superglue.

Product suggestions:

• Weller WLACCHHM-02
• Any brand

PCB clamp/Panavise (optional)

Used to securely hold PCBs.

General recommendations:

Two adjustable rigid arms for holding a PCB by the sides. Ranges in quality and number of modular attachments; high-end ones can be found used commonly.

Product suggestions:

• PanaVise Model 201 PV Jr.
• PanaVise Model 301 Standard PanaVise
• PanaVise Model 324 Electronics Work Center (has sponge and soldering iron holder!)
• Eclipse ProsKit SN-390 Adjustable Soldering Clamp Holder

Digital microscope (optional)

Used to line up small pitch chips and check work.

General recommendations:

• One with an LCD screen (not handheld)
• One with two bendable lights

Helpful for soldering and checking small pads, such as RAM installs. Bendable lights allow you to compensate for the shadows of different components on a board. Often times, there is the option to take screenshots of the display as well.

Product suggestions:

• AmScope SM-4TP
• Andonstar AS407/409 AS246/249

Hot air rework station (optional)

Allows you to solder/desolder components with hot air.

General recommendations:

Some mods and repairs require removing or replacing a surfice mount chip from a motherboard, which need a hot air rework station to do. Hot air is also a convenient option for when you use heat shrink or need to rework board components. It's recommended to not get a combined two-in-one hot air station, as the majority will have poor-quality irons & poor-quality hot air guns.

Product suggestions:

• Atten ST-862D
• Quick or Generic 861DW
  • Generic 861DW might have a different type of heating element in the handle, where the wires are soldered rather than using a pin header. These clones can still use an OEM handle from Quick, though.
• Generic 858D (cheap, generally sufficient)

Desoldering gun (optional)

For people who extensively recap boards or desolder through-hole ICs.

General recommendations:

If you intend to recap a ton of thru-hole capacitors or desolder thru-hole ICs for advanced mods like NESRGB installs, you may also want to invest in a desoldering gun, which is similar to a soldering iron, but the tip is hollow, and it has a trigger that enables a vacuum to suck solder away.

The Hakko FR-301 is the gold standard for this. Others recommend a budget ZD-915, but often times you need to swap out the plastic solder collector tube with a glass one and get ceramic filters - but even then, it doesn't seem to perform as well as an FR-301.

Product suggestions:

• Hakko FR-301
• Hakko FM-204 (if you want to buy into the Hakko ecosystem)
• ZD-915