I think the unit works just fine as designed. My biggest beef with it is the length of time it takes to warm up from cold, so to have it ‘always ready’ you have to have it on all the time, and this results in the piece of composite that the element screws to crumbling away after not too many months. I have replaced my handset for this reason twice since I have had it. I have it in mind to see if zi can figure a way to control the temperature with a single input so that I can sense when the handset is in its holder, and reduce the temperature to an ‘idle’ so that it will pick up to useable temperature when the handset is picked up

It looks like there is enough space for a small vacuum reservoir in the case. I gonna try and combine your vacuum reservoir idea and my delay circuit idea and fit it all neatly inside the case. That is, once I have some time to get around messing with my ZD915.

I noticed the same thing my pump blows instead of sucking I have a quick question did you reverse the negative and the positive to reverse the airflow so I could suck would that fix the issue of the not sucking but blowing issue? If anybody can help me answer please thank you

A better way would be to build the vacuum valve into the handle, directly activated by the trigger and have the compressor/pump only running when needed, controlled by a suction sensor in a small vacuum reservoir. That way the you have the best of both worlds.

With the right maintenance it works well even without modifications.

If Im not mistaken, the Hakko 470 uses this exact principle, except the solenoid valve is inside the case, where the tube attaches.

I personally would go for a mechanical valve instead of the trigger switch and a small reservoir inside of the main unit with a pressure sensor which powers on the pump. Good job, though!

Nice, a demo would be great

I wanted to see it work!

I’d like to make a foot pedal operated version of this for my Aoyue soldering/desoldering station. There is a newer version with a stronger DC pump but mine is the older version with the more robust AC pump. It is also used as a fume extractor which means I can set it to run constantly. I am hung up on the vacuum valve part. What do I search for? When I search eBay I get a bunch of car parts that look nothing like your small, rectangular, valve with blade terminals. Is there a name for this type?

great video! what is the inner size of the tube? will 6mm OD connectors work?

Hy Can this fix also be appied on proskit desoldering station? My station is not sucking properly

I wonder how much vacuum it takes to work properly.

That's great but why put the valve contraption on the gun? It would be much more neat tucked away inside the enclosure... Also, perhaps a potentiometer to adjust the maximum delay so as to protect the pump would be advisable? Some people for some applications might not actually need a delay at all.

Wearing out the pump motor is probably not s problem, but wearing out the diaphragms certainly is. I had to replace mine after a couple of years, and just try sourcing them.

If you replace the bad 18-to-12V-Resistor-bord with a DC step-down converter, also the suction power increase.

Will this station satisfactorily desolder lead free soldering?

Hi Please put a link to the vacuum valve

Or try running the vacuum pump at its rated 24v instead of 18V. Personally, I wouldnt mess up a good looking working design this way, but hey, have fun.

Reinventam apa calda?

Ich hab die gleiche Station, und die Ventilplatten (einfach nur 1mm Silikon Platte) waren verhärtet. Es macht sinn diese zu ersätzen.

now if there was a mod to make this more quiet... the pump is so damn loud...

Too big reservoir. For desoldering 10 pads you have to vacuum all the capacity. The gun originally works without it. The main problem with this gun is a vacuum leak between tin chamber and desoldering pipe.

You almost need to put the vacuum on a demand system similar to how compressors work so that you always have the vacuum ready. There's not that much air that needs to pass into the desoldering tip. What if you could use some sort of sealed bag with a weight hanging on it or something (bellows) and then just lift it back up every now and then. Silence. Every now and then you just hear a small fart sound. Ha, sorry, but what if you could fix someone's desoldering gun so it sounded like it ripped one off every time you pulled the trigger. God I'm a sick puppy.