What's the best Soldering/Desoldering Station to buy?

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

I have had two Weller WESD51 soldering stations. The first one lasted several years and then died. I bought another Weller WESD51 and that one lasted one year. Mind you, I am a hobbyist, not a commercial user. As much as I loved the Weller (and had all kinds of tips for it), I was not going to go for "Three Strikes And Your Out".

I bought a Hakko FX-888D and it has been flawless. Costs about $100. I like it very much. Then, I bought a Hakko FR-301 desoldering gun. It costs over twice the soldering station price, at around $260. But I am here to tell you that it really works. If you plan to work on old phenolic circuit boards, this gun will usually remove the solder without lifting the trace.

Hakko is made in Japan, not China, Not Taiwan etc.

I'm also a hobbyist, and also do repairs as a side business, and I used for years a Radio Shack 40 Watt Soldering Iron that I bought for $20 but that kicked the bucket a few years ago.
I Bought a Weller 20 Watt soldering iron from the local Ace hardware for $40 just recently and it works nicely for desoldering components from printed circuit boards (now that I've figured out how to do it correctly).

But I've wanted to get a Soldering station for tube radio work so that I can undo components that are soldered to the metal chassis of the radio easier.

And yes those brands were what I was thinking of because I was thinking of something made in either the U. S. or Japan.

Thanks for your help.