X-TRONIC 6040 rework station

[Tepin]

I know there is a lot of people on the board that want to get into solder rework (mostly dc jacks) but are held back by the cost of proper equipment. I picked one of these up 4 weeks ago:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-TRONIC-6040-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDERING-IRON-STATION-/120727607996?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1bed1abc

I was a little skeptical on the quality but did manage to find 2 honest reviews online so I gave it a shot.

I love it. I've been recapping boards and just finished another DC jack with it. The iron is good and heats fast, the air pencil is excellent, I think the quality of the machine is excellent.

This is the review of the older model that convinced me to give the product line a try:

http://www.kerrywong.com/2011/12/05/x-tronic-4040-hot-air-reworksoldering-station/

There are 2 major improvements over the one reviewed that stand out. The first is a higher wattage element for the hot air and the second is auto shutoff when the hot air pencil is placed into the holster. The pencil also has a cool down procedure that keeps the blower on until it reaches 100c.

It's still all metric, but for $125 I'm very pleased with this purchase!

 

[SoloCon]

Hmmm, I just might pick this up. Thanks for the info!

 

[Larry Sabo]

I have this station in its Gordak version; at least it appears to have the identical front layout and hot air wand. It's okay for DC jacks but if you have any intention to use it for BGA reflowing or reballing, I can't recommend it. Unless the design has changed, the heating element gets off-centre and heat distribution is very uneven, i.e., hotter on one side than the other. Many other similar stations suffer the same design fault. See this thread on the CVX Game Console Repair forum about the problem and alternatives.

 

[Tepin]

I don't have any intention of using this for reflows or reballs, if I ever get into that I'd like to get an infrared machine. At the very least I'd want something that has a better way to gradually increase the temperature than this is capable of.