Soldering Pencil vs Station

[petemoore]

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=374-100

   I just got one of these because.
  Notice how identical it looks to the Weller on same page I'm sure you'll notice the price pop.
   I have both. The Orange one's iron is very difficult to separate from it's friends, and so the spring-dock and station like to come along for every iron use..horrible..pulls every time requires two hands to separate and re-assemble every time. It's ''3-wide'' cables of course loop and grab stuff, like anything.
  The Blue One...has bakelite fitting and shroud improvements, the iron slips out, wires can't find the iron and I haven't smelled burning insulation since, I consider this to be much safer since a wire that goes right through the spring-guard to the hot iron that'll bake right through it pretty quickly, could be carrying voltage/current.
  Orange is higher power or something, and can runaway heat it's elements, Blue one gets hotter enough for anything, but I set it at 3 oclock instead of 12 oclock.
  Hafta say the Orange one is a way overpriced, not well thought through design, and is very difficult to use, Blue ones the best deal on an Iron yet, but mine came with an ice-pick-tip, yeah I know, but I re-shaped it to have a flat/angle surface.

[JFX09]

I am very satisfied with my Aoyue 936 (hakko clone) It gets real hot, real fast, so i don't mind turning it off for 3 mins, it's back up in no time.

+11 for the brass shavings tip cleaner.  I have a question thought about it. Would the pads they sell 4 for a buck at the dollar store work as well as the ones they sell specifically for soldering  at 6,99 a pop at Addison ?

[BoxOfSnoo]

I was going to grab the WLC100 but was advised to get a good temp-controlled iron instead (apparently the WLC100 is power-controlled, not temp-controlled).  I got the WP25 for a decent price and then just got a stand with it.  It's great!  The only thing I might have done otherwise is to get the 35-watt one instead.

[BRingoC]

The tips for the weller pencil are getting harder and harder for me to find, I can't just pop into a hardware store and buy replacements, I have to order them from mouser, though I have seen the station replacement tips available.   Also for cleaning the tips of an iron, I have never used anything myself, but isn't that sponge thing just a chore boy steel wool pad sitting inside of an ashtray?  http://www.choreboyscrubbers.com/

[petemoore]

  Brass doesn't need 'preserver',
  Steel wool and most other metal scourers have some kind of oil on 'em, not recommended for cleaning a soldering tip. Maybe the steel wool can be de-oiled, or the pads you see at the D-store have real brass / no oil.

[imbuedblue]

Where do you get that brass sponge thing? I've wanted one but can't find it at Mouser or ebay. I suspect I'm just not calling it the right thing.

They are on eBay, just search "soldering tip cleaner."

[wavley]

I am very satisfied with my Aoyue 936 (hakko clone) It gets real hot, real fast, so i don't mind turning it off for 3 mins, it's back up in no time.

+11 for the brass shavings tip cleaner.  I have a question thought about it. Would the pads they sell 4 for a buck at the dollar store work as well as the ones they sell specifically for soldering  at 6,99 a pop at Addison ?

+1 on the brass tip cleaner.

The Xytronic can use Hakko tips, I love my xytronic at home. It's not as nice as my work Weller WD2, but it doesn't cost near as much.