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  • Author Author: jw0752
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Tenma 21-10115 Temperature Controlled Soldering Station

jw0752

Thanks to a gift from a good friend I have for the first time in my 60 year walk with electronics a temperature controlled solder station Up until now it has always been one or two unregulated power levels As is the case with most of the things we are accustomed to we are hesitant to try something new Here is a link to the Tenma  21-1011521-10115 solder station from Newark Electronics which I recieved

 

http://www.newark.com/tenma/21-10115/soldering-station-esd-safe-60w/dp/56T2208

 

Here is a picture of the  21-1011521-10115 set up on the bench

 

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The first thing that I noticed about the iron itself was how light it was. My old faithful soldering iron clocked in at 90 grams but the new one was only 50 grams. Besides being 40% lighter it was also 4 cm shorter in over all length. This lighter weight and shorter body will result in less wrist and hand fatigue.

 

The unit is designed with a small ceramic heater that converts 60 Watts of power and is small enough to fit inside a 4 mm diameter cavity in the base of the tip. Since the heater is so integral with the tip the heat up time is extremely fast and the ability to respond to demands for heat from large traces and pads is very good. Warm up from room temperature to operational temperature is roughly 30 seconds. Here is a close-up picture of the handpiece.

 

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The control itself will display the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius. There are three adjustable preset temperatures that are selectable by pushing one of three buttons. The response up or down is very fast due to the relatively low mass of the tip. I have chosen my low temperature of 275 C for light jobs, 310 C for my standard jobs and 400 C for larger mass connections. Since I am still experimenting and getting used to the iron these temps may change in the future. If you adjust the temperature of a setting the display shows your target temperature and then toggles to actual temperature for normal operation. There is even a way to calibrate the temperature. I tested my unit with a thermal couple meter and found it was within 2 degrees C of actual. This is well within acceptable tolerance, particularly in my hobby shop.

 

Here is a closeup of the front control panel which is simple and very functional.

 

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While I only have a week or so experience with the Tenma  21-1011521-10115 I am very pleased with it in all ways and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to upgrade from the challenge of using a non-regulated solder iron.

 

Thanks to my friend who made this possible.

 

John

  • in reply to Workshopshed

    Hi Andy,

     

    I noticed that the iron has to be fully seated in the cradle or it falls backwards. Perhaps I will think of a modification to improve this situation as it did catch my attention when I first noticed it. Sometimes it is just a matter of getting used to a new device but if you have one and this bother you perhaps I will not get past it either. This is one of the side effects of the grip to tip distance and the loss of the weight in the front half of the iron. I am just careful when putting the iron back in the cradle and the inconvenience is worth the improvement in weight and mass distribution.

    John

  • in reply to rachaelp

    Hi Rachael,

     

    You are very correct. The grip to tip distance is what make the difference. I ordered up some additional tips as soon as I finished my first soldering session with the unit. I was surprised how similar the different tips were. Only the extreme sizes showed a visual difference. The smaller conical and chisel sizes are indistinguishable. I actually thought that there had been a packaging error and 3 of the tips were the same with different stock numbers. I am sure I will use them and they are in a size that will likely be the most used.

     

    John

  • in reply to rachaelp

    There are a few tips available for this iron and they are pretty cheap too.

    My only complaint with the Tenma is that the stand seems not quite right. I always feel that the iron is going to fall backwards.

  • Great product (and great friendly gift!)

    As usual a good review of the product. You will enjoy with it other 60 years image

     

    Enrico

     

    BTW the product link shows no product while the long link is ok.

  • Very nice image It'll make a huge difference when you are trying to build / repair stuff with modern SMT components on it.

     

    Regarding the overall length, the more important difference between your old iron and the new one is the "grip to tip" distance? I suspect the additional length and then some of your old one was likely all in the hot section. The shorter the grip to tip distance the easier it is for fine work.

     

    Do you have (or plan to get) a selection of tips for this? It looks like a fairly small tip which is good for most normal components and regular SMT parts. If you want to solder things like connectors or anything which has a large plane attached then you might want to swap the tip for a larger one for those jobs. Then there are really fine ones if you get adventurous with fine pitch SMT stuff! image

     

    Best Regards,

     

    Rachael