Soldering

Can anyone recommend a good soldering iron? It will be for electronics, the odd repair, so is a temperature controlled one necessary or can I get away with a 10 quid job from Maplins? It's been a bout 15 years since the last time, so can anyone recommend a good beginners/intermediate resource?

Hakko makes good stuff. I use their 936 model base station/iron but it looks discontinued now. They have lots on the website.

I used a $15 Radio Shack piece of shit for years and it was always a frustrating experience. When I finally got down to assembling my x0xb0x (my first and only semi-major electronics assembly project) I invested in a Weller WES51 and it made a world of difference. The cheap model made me feel as though I just couldn't solder, whereas with the Weller I was able to solder even a surface mount chip with relative ease. Now, it's not the fear of soldering that prevents me from tackling new projects, rather it's the hassle of sourcing parts (yes, I'm looking at you, 9090 PCBs).

Long story short, if you're planning on doing more than the odd joint repair, I'd recommend getting a decent temperature controlled station.

After going through a few Radioshack irons and a non-variable Weller, I finally just bought this which is what I should have got to begin with:

http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC100-Soldering-Hobbyist--Yourselfer/dp/B000AS28UC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296090786&sr=8-1

a real iron makes a huge difference

Thanks, just about everyone I've spoken to recommends getting a half decent one to begin with.

anything by Russell Hobbs.

  On 1/28/2011 at 4:10 AM, BCM said:

anything by Russell Hobbs.

Whimsy is not acceptable in EKT. I suggest you delete that before kakapo sees it.

OK then Morphy Richards.