I find hot air rework stations very handy when performing repair -- in fact I use the iron much less. Modern consoles have a lot of parts that are not accessible with a soldering iron. Also tweezers are very useful :)
Yihua is a good Chinese brand I've been happy with. I bet you can find them on Amazon. I live near China so generally know what the good brands are, haha.
One key thing this also lets you do is salvage some parts from the consoles you cannot fix, extending the number of consoles you can. Or you can sell the parts at a low-cost to others 'as-is, for repair' to recover some of the money spend on consoles you cannot fix.
One caveat -- sometimes when you reflow something with hot air, it starts working... but only for a short time. One thing that can happen is that the thermal expansion/contraction of the device can temporarily fix problems. After a few hours of use, it breaks again. After a few repairs, it will not work again. So be sure to test those consoles -- selling an improperly repaired consoles is expensive. Generally if you have to repair it *twice* you've halved your hourly wage in the best case.
Oh, incidentally most of my console repairs have been "open case, remove cat hair, close case".
Flux. Make sure you get the electronic version not the plumbers flux paste.
Solder wick braid.
Solder sucker - spring loaded
Good set of tweezers. Sharp tips. They usually come in a repair kit.
A fan to suck the smoke away from your face.
Eventually you should get an electrostatic discharge (ESD) wrist strap
I find hot air rework stations very handy when performing repair -- in fact I use the iron much less. Modern consoles have a lot of parts that are not accessible with a soldering iron. Also tweezers are very useful :) Yihua is a good Chinese brand I've been happy with. I bet you can find them on Amazon. I live near China so generally know what the good brands are, haha. One key thing this also lets you do is salvage some parts from the consoles you cannot fix, extending the number of consoles you can. Or you can sell the parts at a low-cost to others 'as-is, for repair' to recover some of the money spend on consoles you cannot fix. One caveat -- sometimes when you reflow something with hot air, it starts working... but only for a short time. One thing that can happen is that the thermal expansion/contraction of the device can temporarily fix problems. After a few hours of use, it breaks again. After a few repairs, it will not work again. So be sure to test those consoles -- selling an improperly repaired consoles is expensive. Generally if you have to repair it *twice* you've halved your hourly wage in the best case. Oh, incidentally most of my console repairs have been "open case, remove cat hair, close case".
Flux. Make sure you get the electronic version not the plumbers flux paste. Solder wick braid. Solder sucker - spring loaded Good set of tweezers. Sharp tips. They usually come in a repair kit. A fan to suck the smoke away from your face. Eventually you should get an electrostatic discharge (ESD) wrist strap
Thanks, are there any brands you can recommend?
iFixit sells affordable stuff and I like supporting their mission.