Buying Soldering Iron..

Also for the record, I use this soldering station. Works great with variable temperature.
Cost only €26

I went this route. It sort of looks like a hobbyist build vs mass production. I've had the plague (aka bad cold) since it arrived so I haven't used it yet. I need to read up on the hot air gun...

"X-TRONIC 4040" HOT AIR REWORK SOLDERING IRON STATION | eBay

I used to use the cheap $20 or so "iron on a power cord" and when my last one failed, I decided to splurge and picked up a nice soldering station. It heats in 30 seconds, has accurate temperature control, and a variety of tips for different jobs. I use the needle point for diodes, the conical for PCB's and the big chisel for big cables.

The screen tells me exactly when the iron is ready to go, and what tempurature its at, and what I've set it to.

It even goes to sleep (drops to 200°C for 5 minutes, and then shuts down completly in another 5 minutes if you dont pick it up, thus saving the element. Recovery from the first sleep stage only takes about 10 seconds and it beeps at you when you pick it up to let you know "hang on - reheating".

Very nice iron. Without looking I think its a Rhino or Dragon brand.

I use to be able to burn out the tip on a radio shack soldering iron in less than a day. I've used Weller and it's a fantastic iron, but the best iron I've ever used was one that I picked up surplus for ~$50. It's made by Hexacon, I purchased it about 15 years. No clue how old it is, the last time it was calibrated was December of 1990! I wouldn't be surprised if I've made 50,000 solder connections with this iron and I'm only on my 2nd tip. I see newer ones show up on ebay now and then. Mine was well worth the money...

Yep Wellers and Hakko's are the bees nuts when it comes to soldering gear for the hobbyist