DEN-ON SC7000Z Desoldering Tool

There I was, an Electronics Technician working on CB Radio's, communications radio's, Cordless Phones and striving to eek out a living in Electronics Repair. I was always one to purchase the best test equipment that I could afford and it always seemed to pay off. I would do such things as, have my bench type Fluke digital multi-meter flashing red LED's while I was not using it. Also, I would put a Lissajous pattern on my oscilloscope while it was not being used on the bench all within view of my customers. I used Fluke DMMs, Bird Wattmeters, high frequency Hitachi Oscilloscopes and I even had an IFR Spectrum Analyzer and Service Monitor that was accurate into the Ghz. IFR (Instrument Flight Research) in Wichita, Ks. was since bought out by Aeroflex. I had two technicians working with me at the time so we had to have all of these items times three (Except for the IFR, which I paid $10,000.00 for).

Now back to the DEN-ON SC7000Z. We had a lot of parts changing to do since we were component level technicians and never board changers. If there was a board to change, we would still do component level repair on the board since that was our skill level. To change all of those parts required a very good desoldering station of which we had three at $500.00 each (circa 1985). They worked somewhat well but they were still not doing a very good job. In came the DEN-ON SC7000Z.

A manufacturers rep came by and left me this little desoldering tool and said that he did not know anything about it, but wanted me to try it out and let him know what I thought about it. It was a while before I got time to try it out, but when I did, I was completely taken aback by the precision of this tool and the way that it extracted solder and did not hurt the printed circuit board at all. We would take out 100 pin ICs and when the solder was extracted from the last pin, the IC would fall out on the bench. Unbelievable, to say the least. We had transformers that we had to change where the tabs went through the PC board and were soldered on the other side. It made quite a blob of solder at the tab. We would put the desoldering tip on the tab with the blob of solder, wait until the solder was completely molten, pull the trigger and all of the solder would be extracted. We were then able to bend up the tabs, unsolder the leads and remove the transformer and it looked like there had never been a transformer there. Again, unbelievable.

I was so smitten with the tool that when my rep came back to get the tool, I told him I had to have this tool. He then got me it touch with the National Sales Manager for DEN-ON, and he made me a deal that I could not refuse. He sold me a case of 10 tools at a great price and told me if I could not sell them, he would take them all back and give me my money back. It just so happens that I was scheduled to go to a convention that I attended every year as an attendee. They also had a one day trade show at that convention every year. I then contacted the trade show manager and she said that they were fully booked and had no room for anyone else. I pleaded with her and she finally told me that she had someone scheduled for the last booth, but he had not paid her yet. She then told me that the first person to pay for this booth will get it. I immediately gave her my credit card and got the booth and sold all of the tools and backordered some more. The technicians who purchased the first tools from me were then selling all of their friends for me. The next years convention was the same, all I had to do was display the desoldering tool and the people who already had the tools would sell them for me. I will never forget, I had one gentleman come up to me and he said "Jerry, I am 80 years old and retired, but I just have to have one of these because I am a tool guy". I understood and did not argue with him.

This was in 1992 and the MSRP was $525.00 and most dealers were selling for that price. We sold the DEN-ON SC7000Z Desoldering Tool for $395.00 (which included the ST-800 stand) and to this day we have not increased the price.

We continued the communications repair business under the name of Howard Electronics, Inc. and had a separate business selling soldering and desoldering equipment under the name of Howard Electronic Instruments, Inc. all in the same building.

Finally, we closed the repair business in 2003 (even though it was still making us a good living) and moved to a larger building and added a warehouse and the rest is history.

We were distributor of the year every year since we started selling the tool and now we have exclusivity for the whole USA. Since we sell worldwide on our website, we also sell a 230V 50Hz tool , DEN-ON SC7000ZA.

We stock all parts, tips, and accessories for the tool and also repair the tool for those who do not want to deal with the repair of the tool. The tool is very easy to repair for any technician, but some do not want to deal with it. For those we charge $65.00 plus parts and try to give one day turnaround. After repair, the tool will be like brand new and will work for you just the same. We also sell used SC7000Z's, but we rarely get them in unless is going out of business.

All in all, you simply cannot go wrong with the DEN-ON SC7000Z Desoldering Tool. Please give it a try, as we Guarantee Satisfaction to our customers.

Thank you very much,

Jerry Howard, CEO
Howard Electronic Instruments, Inc.