lossychan Posted February 16 (edited) Hello! I recently bought a Hakko soldering iron station, however reviewing most DDH customization videos they use the Hakko My Pen Alpha, which is for slightly different use (seems to be advertised as more crafts based) and very similarly priced. Should I refund and get the My Pen Alpha? Or is any soldering iron/ heat pen appropriate as long as it doesn’t burn the vinyl? Edited February 16 by lossychan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cetuslupeedus Posted April 21 (edited) My partner @rudebuster has been doing a lot of customizations (had been on hold for a while due to university, thanks 7000-word essay), and she has the My Pen α. She really likes it! Edit: I just realized I probably should mention something. When we lived in Orangeland the United States years ago, she had bought a cheap brand and accidentally burnt the head. I would be careful with the brand you use if not the My Pen α, some are finicky (especially the cheap ones, lol; even here, the cheaper brands weren't too great). Tsutomu Ch. Doll Master Tsutomu (tsutomuch on YouTube and ainaia_9999 on Twitter), talks about it on both YouTube and Twitter (you'll have to translate the Twitter post if you don't understand Japanese; Google Translate is oddly the best Japanese translator now—DeepL, which used to be the best, got screwed up with the latest updates), and offers some modded products on Booth. @rudebuster learned a lot from him. @rudebuster's own recommendation, which Tsutomu Ch. Doll Master Tsutomu doesn't mention on his channel, is the addition of a mini router; she uses the Argofile ART120 (like this one, but she bought it directly from Volks's store). There's many different heads you can buy for it, and it helps a lot if you're still learning. Small-grit sandpapers aid a lot with smoothing, and the Argofile ART120 has a sandpaper head that @rudebuster says is very useful. Edited April 21 by cetuslupeedus Sometimes you're Godzilla and sometimes you're Tokyo. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites