Are any soldering tips interchangeable w/CSI Station?

[alba359]

Hi, I'm new to soldering. I purchased a CSI-Station1A soldering station from Circuit Specialist. Are CSI soldering tips interchangeable with any other brands such as Hakko? I emailed Circuit Specialist but have not yet received a reply. Also Googled it appears no info avaiable. Thanks for any information.

[alba359]

bump. Thought I'd try one more time. Anyone know if soldering iron tips on the CSI-Station 1A are interchangeable with another brand tip? Thanks

[Jidis]

No, but hope you find out. I've got a 474 desoldering one here. It would be nice to know on that too, but I figured I'll still be able to get theirs for a while, and if their stuff is anything, it's sure cheap.

Their support (as you're figuring out) is pretty horrible. When I got the 474, the power light didn't work at all. I called and told them and they were supposed to try to track down a unit to verify that the power light was supposed to come on and call back but they never did, so eventually I called and left another message to which they never replied. I gave up and just figured I'd use it like it was. Recently I went in it and it looked like a relay may have been wired funky, so I called and asked about that, mentioning that I never got a reply way back when I bought it, and the guy pretty blatantly accused me of lying about having left messages back then (shouldn't you do that only after the customer starts making demands about refunds or something?). I just wanted him to make sure mine was wired right over the phone. Anyway, he told me to mail him the schematic I had scribbled down and said he could dig a unit up there, check and call me back, but he never did, so I called him a day or two afterward and he eventually just said "yeah, it's wired right". Anyway, figured I was on my own, and in the course of poking around at the supply to the light, being a klutz and too lazy to gut/desolder the whole thing to spread it all out, I managed to short & pop some triac in the front and am now left with nothing until I replace that.

Sorry for the long bitchy gripe, but maybe it's worth considering if anyone's buying one.

[ripple_fx1]

Hmmm - can you repair an iron with the iron that needs repair?
As far as the tips are concerned, unless you plan on soldering 40hrs a week, just keep them tinned and clean and they'll last forever.
Cheers! JR

[alba359]

JR and Jidis,Thanks for the replies. I finally found a dealer named MPJA online that has a similar station model 301a. I contacted and was told the tips will fit the CSI Station1A. Hey Jidis, hope I don't have the same problem as I have some stuff they owe me on back order. Thanks again, Don

[Jidis]

Don,

No, ordering was actually fine from what I remember. I even got a little free multimeter thing that I use a bunch. Another scary part was that the tech I had sounded like those units come from somewhere else which they have little connection to. Sort of surprising as it seemed to be one of their main products. I asked him about a schematic and he said "good luck, we haven't even been able to get one of those from them".

Thanks for the tip (no pun) on that other unit too. I think there was someone in here looking at one a while back and I noticed it was very similar in style, so there are probably a bunch of clones floating around.

JR- Luckily there are several other things here to do the soldering.

Take Care (and good luck on the backorder Don)