Yes, the Weller 100 is new junk. And lots of companies have copied it. I'm very unhappy that websites like Sparkfun and others sell the Weller WLC100 or the even cheaper knockoffs. At least Adafruit sells better quality soldering stations with actual temperature feedback control.
Hakko is good. Weller WES51 is good. I have been satisfied with Aoyue. They take standard 900M series Hakko tips. Aoyue 937+
This next one is crap, it claims "accurately adiuste temperature" (their spelling) but it is really just a triac, diac, and potentiometer lamp dimmer. Lots of online sellers, with slightly different colors but all the same. I bought some of these, took them apart, and tested them. Very slow to heat up. Temperature may drop 100F while soldering and take 10 minutes to recover. Turn it up enough to solder an IC, and 10 minutes of rest it will heat up enough to burn the solder on the tip.
If you REALLY need to get a cheap iron, this one actually has an Op Amp with thermistor temperature feedback. Don't count on the dial label being accurate. It only drops a few degrees on the tip while soldering and recovers while soldering. However, it is not constructed as well as it might be, and the tips are entirely non-standard with only a few types available. It is also rather fat since all the electronics are through-hole parts.
Do yourself a favor and toss the conical tips that come with 99% of soldering irons these days. Get a medium screwdriver/chisel tip for through hole parts, a small screwdriver/chisel tip and a truncated cone tip for surface mount.
A conical tip has almost no contact area. The truncated cone tip is for drag soldering surface mount ICs.
Yes indeed, conical tip is never the right tool for the job! It is however easy to manufacture on
a production lathe.
A lot of modern irons have weaker temperature control, so you have to run them hot to prevent
them freezing the solder under load as the bit dumps its heat.
The Wellers I believe have minimum thermal path from heating element to tip and temperature
sensing right in the bit itself using the curie point and a magnetic switch - they are more able
to pile in large amounts of power when needed without requiring to run hotter than is
needed.
Inferior designs have slacker temperature sensing and more thermal resistance from
element to tip. This also means they have to be rather underpowered (otherwise the temperature
overshoot is too great).
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I did a lot of research and found the X-Tronic Model 3020XTS seemed to have the best rerviews. So it arrived today. I'll give it a try and let everyone know how it works. Of course the only tip that it came with was conical. I'll order some different tips later on.
Make sure your solder is a good quality solder. That can make as much difference as the quality of your soldering iron.
I prefer 63/37 or 62/36/2 (2% silver for surface mount soldering) in a brand name like Kester or Multicore.
The silver is there because many SMD parts like chip resistors and capacitors have silver that plain lead-tin solder will leach off, making a poor or intermittent connection.
polymorph:
Make sure your solder is a good quality solder. That can make as much difference as the quality of your soldering iron.
I prefer 63/37 or 62/36/2 (2% silver for surface mount soldering) in a brand name like Kester or Multicore.
The silver is there because many SMD parts like chip resistors and capacitors have silver that plain lead-tin solder will leach off, making a poor or intermittent connection.
I have replaced my solder and flux with all new. Will see how it all works out. Many thanks for the suggestions.
