Soldering Iron Options

;-) Clearing the snow from my glasses, I saw Tony Duell typed: I don't have one of these (I'd love to have one), but... My Weller butane iron (to my knowledge) isn't called a "Pyropen", but that could be just a UK name thing... Spec's on my Weller: it's a butane-fired adjustable-heat soldering iron with removable tips & a sparker built-in to the protective cap, and the whole thing fits into my shirt pocket (The *ultimate* geek-wear! ;-) ... cost me $70 USD but well worth it. The tips I received in the package were the standard-sized soldering tip, the hot-knife, the blowtorch (great for camping! -- who needs matches???) and the heat-blower. Then, at the local "Dork-RadioShack" they had mis-marked two 1.0mm tips for it at $0.99 USD (instead of $9.99 -- over 90% off!! :-) so I bought both of them! These work great for board soldering, and have done a few of the "larger-part" SMD soldering with no problems whatsoever. (I picked up some 1407 round SMD resistors for really cheap (closeout) from Mouser Electronics) and the job my Weller did was just wonderful! By the by, I've been using that one 1.0mm tip for almost everything for the last two years (including soldering mains power cords) and it's still like brand-new. The other tip should be as classic as my CoCos by the time I have to open it!!! ;-) Thanks to that little wonder, I'm not in *such a hurry* for a full-bore soldering station. ;-) HTH, "Merch" -- Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed, Owner, MerchWare | nuclear warhead disarmament should zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.