What iron should I get!

[LoyalistRevolt]

I have 40 buck and want to get a cheap but good iron!

[gannon]

I'll give up my flashlight iron for $35
Really though, just a cheap-ish soldering station from radio shack would be good enough for most stuff. Then you could invest the rest into a set of good sized tips.

[bicostp]

If you can shop on ebay and find one:

Weller WTCPN base with TC201P iron.

It doesn't just beat the crap out of the Rat Shack irons, it steals their lunch money and sends them home crying. I've done everything from through-hole, to surface-mount, to jewelry with it. It's about 60 watts, heats up in under a minute, and has cut through huge blobs of solder like butter.

Here's one for $20, but it's going to expire soon

To complete whatever setup you're going with, get these essentials:

• Desoldering bulb
  Desoldering braid
  .020 solder (it's thin, but that's good because it's easier to control the amount, perfect for fine surface-mount work)
  some mid-size solder (for bigger jobs)
  a cheap kitchen sponge with some half-deep slices in it (for cleaning the tip)

[Triton]

ungar soldering stations are REALLY nice too, i used an ungar 9000 at school, its a really fine tip, gets hot in ~30-45 seconds and is variable between 400 and 800 degrees

[CronoTriggerfan]

Oh, it's gotta be the Black and Decker D2030. It'll have those jeans flattened and ready in no time flat, and smelling like a spring breeze!

[Aguiluz]

Oh, it's gotta be the Black and Decker D2030. It'll have those jeans flattened and ready in no time flat, and smelling like a spring breeze!

You don't know how I laughed at that.

Anyway, mine's a el-cheapoish CN$18, 30 watt soldering iron. Used it for the SneakyUSB, the PSP Hack, and it's pretty good.

[typamc95]

For a station, I suggest THIS