PINECIL – Smart Mini Portable Soldering Iron, Small

I've seen the Pinecil around for a while and decided to upgrade to upgrade from my Weller WLC100. Holy smokes is this thing amazing! I always thought that my Weller was a great iron because of all the rave reviews and I was just inept at soldering. The very first time I used the Pinecil I was blown away and how nice and easy soldering went. I can never go back.PROS:* Heats up in seconds* Very comfortable to use* The small size makes soldering in small spaces a breeze* You can power it with a all kinds of different power supplies* Works with TS-100 tipsCONS:* The included tip isn't the best for general soldering. I ended up getting a TS-D24 tip and now it's about perfect.* The tension screw that keeps in the tip requires a tiny screwdriver that's not included and is annoying to deal with. I just replaced it with a M2x4mm thumb screw and it works great.It's completely bare bones and requires you to have your own power supply, but I absolutely love it. I've told all my friends that they need to get one.

People have probably raved about this iron enough, but I'll add my opinion. I'm just a hobbyist, but I've been soldering for many years now. I have a Weller station that's been very faithful to me, but I've really been enjoying working with the Pinecil.It heats up as quickly or even more quickly than the Weller. It actually seems to be able to deliver more heat to solder joints, leading to less time spent per joint. I really like how light and maneuverable it is; it's easier to navigate crowded circuit boards. I just bought a third-party bevel tip for it - (tip replacement is fairly straightforward, but don't lose those tiny, tiny screws!) and it's made soldering so much faster and easier.I do wish it came with a stand. The one that Pinecil sells separately looks a little flimsy, but it doesn't really fit in a standard stand.The interface is a little tricky, with only two buttons to do all the functions. You definitely need to read the manual (and maybe print out a cheatsheet), but once you've got your settings dialed in, you just need to press 2 buttons (press '+' to turn on heat, hold '-' to stop). It really would have been nice to have, say, a rotary encoder, or even just a third button for 'select', but I suppose there are tradeoffs for its price and size.You do need to provide your own USB power supply. I've just been using the power brick from a laptop, (though it didn't work with my Macbook Air power supply; I don't think it has enough wattage. It works with a regular Macbook power supply)Anyway, it's a good iron, a really cheap way to get into soldering, and so far seems to outperform my ~$250 Weller.

Works way better than expected. Heats up fast and being able to have so many options on a $40 solder gun is great! Very easy to use and the tip is versatile. Only complaint is after market tips are $$$.

This soldering iron is an absolute game-changer. I've used a fair number of different soldering irons over the years - electric and butane - and this is simply the best one.First I love that it runs off of USB-C PD at about 65W, which works perfectly with all my various laptop chargers, giving me convenient access to soldering wherever I need it. This also means I'm not limited to the piddly cords on most soldering irons and have a lot better range of motion with it.The heatup is absolutely mindblowing. My previous electric irons often took 10+ minutes to heat up. The Pinecil is at full temperature in 3 seconds. Not even an exaggeration, 3 seconds. Even the butane ones can't compete with that.The temperature control is a breeze and very intuitive, and I love the quick-boost feature (hold down +) for those quick bursts of extra heat when first contacting a metal part for instance. I get perfect joints every time.But more than anything, this iron has made me *want* to solder more. Lots of times in the past, I'd take a quicker option (e.g. twisting wires and covering with electrical tape) because of how inconvenient my previous irons were. But with the Pinecil, it's so quick and easy that I find myself soldering things I never would have bothered to before. From wire splices in DC power supplies to structural solder elements, everything is easy with it.And the price! At just $40 USD at purchase, this thing is a steal. For comparison the terrible electric iron I used previously (that took 10 minutes to heat up at "40W") was almost $50 CAD, which with current exchange rates is 92% of the cost. The extra $3 was well worth it.

Great product and quality company so I don't want to give less that five stars.Positives: works incredibly well, great tip, heats super fast, easily controlled with many safety featuresNegatives: needs a usb C cable and power brick to power and the biggest negative, has absolutely zero ergonomics. If you solder for more than like 5 minutes, its difficult to hold and rather uncomfortable compared to other options in the price range. It has a large and heavy square shaped design and ironically is not like a pencil at all.Overall love the product and the company but hate the design. If you frequently solder for longer periods of time, stay away, but if you just need to fix a couple of wires here and there, the best there is!

Heats up fast and is perfect if you want a small iron that still works efficiently. Only complaint is that the usb-c port could have a little bit for depth because most supplies don't push all the way in so it has a little bit of wiggle room. If it pushed all the way in it'd probably be 5 stars, barrel port works perfect though. Other than that it works fast and the sleep feature on it is pretty nice to have if you ever need to walk away for a bit. Good for any hobby soldering and haven't ran into issues from it having a smaller tip than most irons.