[vcf-midatlantic] OT: Looking for recommendations on new soldering station

[Ethan O'Toole]

> I think everyone should have a WES/WESD51 on their tool shelf.  They are 
> awesome, built like tanks, easy to train on, simple, work well, portable, and 
> you can feel OK loaning out.
> I love my metcal 500, but it's not leaving the bench.
> Jim

I had one of the Orange Wellers growing up. I dunno, for the price point I 
think I like my Hakko more. The downside on the hakko is the UI is a 
little strange and it would be easy to knock the calibration off. The 
WESD51 is the digital readout baby blue thing?

A friend swears by the Pace setups. He has the extruded aluminum box thing 
that drives 3 tools, a soldering and desoldering tool for it. No hot air. 
I dunno if I like the sucker on a long hose as it creates more dead space 
needed to pull vacuum for solder removal, I've been using an 808 (the 
Hakko not the Roland) for a while and like it. But the 808 is tending to 
jam more, but that is probably from flux + chipquik + RoHS solder.

Nothing like finding an arcade monitor where someone has replaced the 
flyback with plumbers solder and one of those old solder guns with the 
wire loop.

             - Ethan