Jason wrote regarding 'Re: [EE] Soldering iron questions - repost to correct tag (sorry)' on Wed, Mar 15 at 16:13:
> It won't effect my decision, but I'm still left wondering how it would work 
> to weld a tip from the WES51 to a cheap unregulated iron.  Or better yet 
> have a cheap iron designed to take a good tip.  Also is anyone familiar with 
> the Weller WLC100?  It's supposed to be a hobbiest model station and is 
> quite cheap, but takes yet another tip that looks more like the crappy irons 
> than the good stations.

I use a WLC100.  I've always thought it to be a fairly nice iron, but
prior to it I'd only used things like the sub-$5 pencil-style irons
you get at Radio Shack or department stores.  Compared to those
things, this station's awesome. :)  When I went to buy it, I couldn't
justify spending $100 or more, considering I only sit down to solder
things maybe once or twice a month.  I bought it about 6 or 7 years
ago (as well as a more pointy ST7 tip that I use most of the time, and
a wider flat "screwdriver" (ST4) tip - the ST3 it comes with appears
to be totally useless), and I haven't regretted it once.  For someone
more demanding, I'm not sure how it'd work out, but given my needs
(through-hole and some minor mechanical repair work that's too small
to use a torch on) I've been extremely happy with it.

Well, except for the sponge.  The new models come with a better sponge
- mine came with a weird paper-like thing that doesn't hold up well.
So anyone planning to go back in time 5+ years (or to eBay) to buy
one, expect to pay a dollar or so for a replacement sponge when you
get back to modern times. :)

--Danny
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