Hello Jukka,

Very nice too bad we can not buy that in Canada! I like the hot air blower would be a great benefit to blow away the fumes.

Regards

Michel

I've used the Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station (yeah, it is $137).



The key is the ability of the station to keep the temperature that you set it to. Note that doesn't mean that it has a display of a temperature -but that the temperature is actually the value indicated.

This lets you crank up the temp when soldering near plastic: counter intuitive, but a hotter iron means you can heat up the solder point on the rail quicker to get the wire soldered on fast, rather than a lower temp that will heat the rail for a longer period and cause the plastic ties to melt.

Or turn down the heat if soldering on a circuit board where you don't want to damage the electrical traces on the board.

Having a sponge (to keep the tip clean) a solid stand (to keep you from knocking the iron over or burning yourself or your work) and a solid temperature control are the key features. Other brands do that as well.

If you do more extensive electronics, then a station that has more capabilities such as de-soldering (for circuit board work) or heat-gun capability (for reflow soldering on spots, etc) can be usefull but is probably overkill for model railroad.


That said, a simple pencil iron can be sufficient if your only doing soldering of wires to tabs but for soldering to k-track rails and the like I'd want one with a lot of power.. .and you still need the stand and sponge in some form... and the pencil only ones have the main lead come out the back of the iron which is more stiff than the leads from the soldering stations. The station wires being more flexible make the iron a bit easier to maneuver.