I’ve been wanting SparkFun’s Hot Air Rework Station since last Christmas, but I had so much stuff on my list that I felt bad adding it. Now that I’m planning on doing some serious SMD work, it was time to bite the bullet and pick one up.

Gotta love those red SparkFun boxes. Even my 9-year old son was like, “Ooh, it’s made by SparkFun” without even seeing the name on it.





You have to admire SparkFun's sense of humor. As if the Read The "Fabulous" Manual on the back wasn't funny enough….



…you need to get a load of some of the funnies sprinkled throughout:

• “Be careful not to burn yourself, your friends, your neighbors, or melt anything that doesn’t need melting”
• “Do not bestow this upon children - Power like this belongs in the hands of adults.”
• “It’s possible that little whimsical puffs of white smoke will emit from the nozzle. Those are just magical solder clouds and are normal. They will go away, so enjoy them while they last.”

Classic.



What a nice unit. It’s pretty sturdy. Not too big, not too small. It totally feels like you got $99 worth of hardware.





It came with two nozzles to get you started. SparkFun also offers a whole host of other attachments.



I’d love to power it on and play around with it, but it’s pretty late and I’m not really prepared right now to take anything apart. Maybe I’ll see if there’s some scrap boards at work that I can practice on.

I’m confident this is going to come in handy in the future. Not just for hobby SMD work, but for recapping some of my vintage mac logicboards. Not to mention parts salvage from random stuff that I find and throw away.