Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had this iron for ten years now. The level of use it's seen has varied up and down, depending on how much time I had available to spend on my electronics hobby. The iron itself is absolutely fine for, you guessed it, hobby and DIY use (no problems with it not being ESD safe, and I've soldered a lot of semiconductors). If I ever need to do a higher volume of work I will upgrade to a WES-51 temp controlled station, but for now this continues to fit the bill quite nicely. The tips are long-lived if you take care of them (keep it tinned even while sitting in the holder, try not to bash it on the holder when you put it in, don't leave it switched on if it won't be used for a while). The standard tip is too big for electronics use and must be replaced with something smaller. For a long time I had a medium-size tip on there and it seemed to function well between 3 and 4 on the heat control, depending on the size of the work. With this station you need to pay quite careful attention to the way the solder flows when you heat the joint, if you want to produce high quality solder joints. The solder should become fully liquid and flow into and around the joint area on its own, without needing to be spread around the sides and back. If not, the temperature isn't high enough. On the other hand, don't set the temp higher than it needs to be or you will shorten the life of the tip and may damage the component you are working on. Remember this and you will quickly learn where the 'normal' setting is and when to turn the iron up or down a bit in response to larger or smaller work. Now for the really important information that I wanted to pass on to users of this iron: I was so used to using my medium size tip in this heat range that when it finally burned out and I replaced it with a fine point, I just turned the iron on and waited for it to heat up so I could tin the tip and start using it. But there was a problem: solder simply beaded on the tip and I couldn't tin it. I thought I had a bad tip BUT here's the kicker: heat level 3 was too high for the fine tip, so it immediately overheated and oxidized. Luckily, using fine steel wool and _very_ careful use of 600 grit paper I was able to bring the tip back to a metallic color. I then switched on the iron at its lowest heat and waited for it to heat up, regularly trying to melt solder. Eventually it got there (I had to turn it up to about 1.5) and I tinned the tip. Turns out the operating range for a fine tip is about 1.5 to 1.8 on my dial. Any higher and you can burn the tip, especially a new, untinned tip. Operating in the low power range, it takes a while for the tip to come up to temp, and to recover its temperature after soldering a few joints. This is the reason why I would go to a temp controlled station if I had to do a lot of work. If time isn't money and you are prepared to closely monitor what's going on at the tip, there's no reason why you can't make perfect solder joints with this iron. Another thing: often when soldering to the metal tabs in RCA connectors I had trouble getting solder to flow onto the tab. for a long time I solved this by sanding or filing the area BUT a much easier and just as effective method is simply to clean the shiny tab with a Q-tip dipped in acetone! Finally, please consider minimizing the lead pollution of your electronics work. Personally I don't much like lead-free solder but I don't want to put lead solder in the trash (ie landfill, ie groundwater). For at least the ten years I've had this iron, I have kept all solder waste and soldered wire clippings in a flip-top container. It takes up next to no space on the bench and I always have somewhere convenient to eject the contents of my solder sucker. At some point I will take this hazardous waste to a local electronics workshop or the municipal recycling depot, but it accumulates so slowly that it really hasn't been an issue yet. Just make sure to mark the container "lead - do not empty in garbage" if there's a chance that someone might do so. Thanks for reading, and happy soldering!