In early 70's at trade school we had American Beauty pencils. Our
teacher swore by them. They did survive a bunch of teens hell bent
on destruction & mayhem.
I couldnt change now. An iron when used a lot becomes almost
a part of your body.

73 Zeno:smoke:

My bench at home is equipped with a Weller WES51 which I have had for about 5 years with no issues at all. :dunno: Maybe they cheapened these things up in later production, or the failure prone ones are counterfeits?

For desoldering, I have one of the Zhongdi ZD-985 vacuum units (sold under many brand names), which I think is pretty good for the price. Intended for PCB rework, it also does a great job at sucking solder from point-to-point connections, tube socket lugs, etc. Has needed a bit of repair in the 3 years since I got it, with some crummy soldering on the controller PCB and a heater element that got plugged up with residue despite regular cleaning (was able to drill it clean and saved it as a spare).

At work, I use a Metcal MX-5000 system. Love it, but the price is way too high for home use. Needs compressed air supply for the desoldering part, as well.