[sdiy] Cheap but reliable soldering iron

[jays at aracnet.com]

I agree with John that the Weller WES series are good irons. I have had
the older WES 50 for about 10 years now. The two issues I have with it
are the lack of surface mount tips and the connector between the iron
and controller isn't that great. I move the iron around a lot and
usually take the iron and controller a part when I do. The connector has
started to get sloppy but is still functional. The company I worked for
30 years ago used the Antex irons and I had some of those for 20 years.
They are good irons. But I think that having the WES 50 is a lot cheaper
and better. The Antex irons would go through tips pretty fast while my
WES 50 has had the same four tips since I got it. I have wide and narrow
chisel tips, a straight point and a straight point I curved the tip on
to do surface mount stuff. Main reason is that temp controlled irons'
tips last a long time. I don't know if this is still true or not but at
one time it was hard to find tips for the Antex in the states. Another
thing about using a iron that has a temp control is you need to solder a
ground plane just put the big tip on and crank up the temp. If you have
a fixed wattage iron you might have to have another iron that could
handle that. Speaking of wattage for the Antex I found the 15 watt iron
the best. 12 watts wasn't enough and 25 watts was to much.

Happy soldering.
Jay S.