New vs. used T130-2.0SK ATTEN soldering iron tip

  • June 8, 2024
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New-in-tube ATTEN T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip.
New-in-tube ATTEN T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip.

This is a mostly-photos followup to a recent post about a tiny 1200x microscope for mobile phones, which concluded with some photos taken of a lightly used T130-2.0SK ATTEN soldering iron tip, described online as a knife tip. It gets inserted into a corded handle that, in turn, plugs into an ATTEN GT-series soldering station (such as the ATTEN GT-6150). The tip, at its point furthest from the end that gets seated in the handle, has another tip, the specific bit that gets hottest when the thing is switched on and which you tin with solder and then use to solder electronic components to each other and to traces, pads, and holes on PCBs.

Laser-engraved 'ATTEN' on the shaft of the soldering iron tip.
Laser-engraved ‘ATTEN’ on the shaft of the soldering iron tip. Photo taken using a 200x clip-on phone camera microscope.

To my surprise, in a mere chronological eye-blink, ATTEN’s GT series of soldering stations seems to have been deprecated or obsoleted. At the time that I write this, ATTEN’s EU site shows only only one model of GT soldering station in stock (the ATTEN GT-6200, a dual-channel station) and most GT-T tips are showing as sold out. ATTEN.COM’s soldering stations category omits the GT series altogether. ATTEN is based in nearby Shenzhen and I purchase soldering iron tips and other tools and supplied on Taobao/Tmall. The official ATTEN store on that platform wasn’t selling GT-T tips at all.

Laser-engraved model number 'T130-2.0SK' on the shaft of the soldering iron tip.
Laser-engraved model number ‘T130-2.0SK’ on the shaft of the soldering iron tip. Photo taken using a 200x clip-on phone camera microscope.

Though the non-working regions near the blade-shaped tip look crusty, my T130-2.0SK tip works perfectly well. The same goes for the other GT-T130 tips I’ve acquired. In hindsight, stocking up on tips for a soldering station from a moribund or discontinued product line could turn out to have been foolhardy or could turn out to have been reasonably prudent. There’s no way to know until a lot more time has passed. The station works well enough today but something inside it could go bzzzzrt! tomorrow. Nobody knows. Sitting on a bunch of tips that were incompatible with then-available stations by ATTEN (assuming they’re still around) and products from other manufacturers would be a real bummer. Hopefully ATTEN itself is not in difficulties.

Naked-eye side-by-side view of (left) a gently-used T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip and a new one (right) with a bit of pinch-zoom on the ol' phonecam.
Naked-eye side-by-side view of (left) a gently-used T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip and a new one (right) with a bit of pinch-zoom on the ol’ phonecam.

My tastes change as I learn (well… more like fumble/bumble/stumble along) and grow as a human bean [sic] but, at the moment, I think this sort of thin-and-narrow knife tip is, for many/most common through-hole soldering tasks at least, far superior to the type shaped like a blunted ballpoint pen that usually comes pre-installed in a new iron possibly the only tip included with a new soldering station.

Side-by-side view of the blade edge of (left) a gently-used T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip and a new one (right) with a bit of pinch-zoom on the ol' phonecam, taken through a 200x clip-on phonecam microscope.
Side-by-side view of the blade edge of (left) a gently-used T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip and a new one (right) with a bit of pinch-zoom on the ol’ phonecam, taken through a 200x clip-on phonecam microscope.

Weighing my fondness for this particular model of soldering iron tip against my gut-feeling of the odds of the station itself going kaput, I didn’t opt to procure a bunch of extra tips of all form factors. I did, however, purchase a couple of additional T130-2.0SKs from two third-party sellers on Taobao. One of these two new-old-stock T130-2.0SKs is shown as the new tip in the photos included in this entry.

Sticker from the tube, flattened out so as to be readable in its entirety.
Sticker from the tube, flattened out so as to be readable in its entirety.

For posterity’s sake and on the very slim chance that it might be useful to myself or to someone else at some point for some unforeseeable reason, I’ve included (immediately above this para) a snapshot of the label from the tip’s shipping/storage tube, peeled off and stuck onto a flat surface so that it’s readable.