Where to buy a Good soldering station???

[paulgrasby]

I am looking to buy a good soldering station, mayber a Hakko or Weller or something. Can any one tell me where the best place to find one is, either online from a reputable seller or in store? But heres where it gets tricky... Im in Australia so I need a 240V station...Anyone on this forum from Australia or know where I should look to get one???

[studiostud]

http://www.amazon.com/Weller-Temperature-Controlled-Soldering-Station/dp/B001D0GY8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1243702341&sr=8-1

this is pretty similar to the one I have and is 240V.  Weller makes pretty great products once you get past the cheap stuff.  I used to go through iron tips every few months when I just had a regular 25W pencil iron I bought from Ace Hardware.  Ever since I bought my station, the tip looks the same as it did from day one which was several months ago. 

[neil411]

I got this one from GuitarFetish, and I love it. I use the pencil tip for PCBs and the 1/8 tip for guitar work. And the brass cleaning pad is much better than the wet sponge thing.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/xyniprsost0w.html

[studiostud]

I don't think that one is a 240V station... although it looks pretty nice.

[Ripthorn]

Look for the xytronics 378 (the 240V version of the 379, I think it is the 378).  I have the 379 and the thing is awesome, beats out the weller stations I have used and is about half the price.

[Cardboard Tube Samurai]

Go to Jaycar and a get a Goot branded one. Japanese made and well worth the money

[darron]

i hate to say it, because i hate dick smith, but dick smith had some decent soldering stations for $70 on special, not sure that they do still. we've been using them for about a month at work and i bought one for home. no probs. it comes with a spade tip and can deliver heat pretty fast. i use it with unleaded solder really nicely. if you want to do finer smd stuff you'd obviously need to change the tip. my main grief so far is that it doesn't have a changeable/detachable soldering iron connection.