ooohhh nice
I recently got two Edsyn stations from my brother, a ZD500DX Soldapullt and an Atmoscope 1036 😀

Cool setup! Still looks retro to me despite its new-ness, very doc-brown-from-back-to-the-future 😀

I don't feel like I do enough soldering to deserve a better iron so battle away with my $15 special. My solder sucker is likewise cheap and I can't remember it ever doing anything other than making me mad - I certainly won't be holding on to it for 40 years!

P.S. On the left side of the pic: My OLD soldering iron and stand that I've had for over 40 years 😀 Hehe, that plug is about the fourth replacement that I have installed on it throughout the course of the decades.

rfnagel wrote:

This is not really VOGONS related per say, but it's sort of: […]
Show full quote

This is not really VOGONS related per say, but it's sort of:

Here is my brand new American Beauty 60-watt "Little Dandy" (model "3112-60") soldering iron and Hexacon model "820" soldering iron stand 😀 I was replacing (and retiring) my heavily used retro soldering iron and stand that I've had for OVER FORTY years with the EXACT SAME brands and models.

P.S. Also pictured is my still functional 40+ year old Edsyn SilverStat SoldaPullt model "AS-197" solder sucker 😀

WOOHOO! 😀 😀

No temperature control, though. That'd be a feature I couldn't let go of.

gdjacobs wrote:

rfnagel wrote:

This is not really VOGONS related per say, but it's sort of: […]
Show full quote

This is not really VOGONS related per say, but it's sort of:

Here is my brand new American Beauty 60-watt "Little Dandy" (model "3112-60") soldering iron and Hexacon model "820" soldering iron stand 😀 I was replacing (and retiring) my heavily used retro soldering iron and stand that I've had for OVER FORTY years with the EXACT SAME brands and models.

P.S. Also pictured is my still functional 40+ year old Edsyn SilverStat SoldaPullt model "AS-197" solder sucker 😀

WOOHOO! 😀 😀

No temperature control, though. That'd be a feature I couldn't let go of.

Same here, once you have an iron with one there's no going back.
Oh and same goes for cordless, I never tutch a non bass iron since I got my snap on

I myself have never used a soldering iron with variable temperature, I simply change out the tip based on job.

As far as battery powered, the types of soldering irons that I've used and owned are designed for factory work... to be powered up all day long (like when I worked at Racal-Milgo decades ago), or for many hours at a time. Typical applications are what I used it for several years ago, a complete overhaul (and "Silverface" to "Blackface" conversion) of an early 1970's Fender Twin Reverb tube guitar amplifier 😀

That being said, the also work quite nicely for any other soldering tasks that I need to do 😀

Anyone have recommendations for a Soldering Station around $50 USD that has temperature control and interchangeable tips?

Just looking on eBay, you can find nice used soldering stations from Hakko, Pace, Weller, and Metcal. If you want new product, you can always purchase one of the Chinese Hakko 936 clones. Not as nice as genuine product from the guys I mentioned, better than non temperature controlled units. You also might be able to hook up with a local electronics or ham radio group. They sometimes have sales for used gear.

How's this one? CircuitSpecialists was mentioned on a Reddit thread where someone asked about decent soldering irons. A Hakko-888 soldering station is around $96 USD shipped. With shipping, this unit is around $70-75 or so.

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/csi-premie … ng-Station.html

The FX-888 and FX-888D (the updated version) are both great irons for any fine work, including surface mount components. I suggest also having a more powerful unit if you need to desolder components which have a lot of thermal capacity or are tied into large thermal soaks like heatsinks or heavy ground planes. An iron for this purpose doesn't necessarily need such accurate heat control.

gdjacobs wrote:

Just looking on eBay, you can find nice used soldering stations from Hakko, Pace, Weller, and Metcal.[..]

I'm a happy user of an Weller Magnastat TCP 24.
It operates at a fixed temperature, but has a mechnism against overheating.
My model was made in the 70s, the same era films like Silent Running came to the movies.
Here, someone else has uploaded a picture of it.