I’m going to learn to do some modding - my practice light, a Courui D01, has arrived so now I’ve got to buy some tools & stuff to get started.
What about this soldering iron kit - any good or do I need something better?
What else will I need to get started ?
Thanks - Steve 
Don't buy that. A crap solder iron will make you stop soldering.
A lot of people here at BLF will want you to buy a solder station (with temperature control and all that). Please listen to them also.
Personally (I do a lot of modding) I stick with my simple Antex solder iron with pointy tip. I have the 18W version and the 25W version. That sounds not much much they work better than most junk 40+W irons out there.
possible link: http://www.soldering-shop.co.uk/catalog/antex-soldering-irons-accessories-antex-soldering-irons-c-21_28_74.html
This is the soldering iron I used for several years, and several other members here use as well.
However. After mine died, I’ve replaced it with one that is only a few bucks more… and hoooooooly Moses is so much nicer than my (formerly) trusty Stahl. Also it takes Hakko soldering tips. They make a massive difference.
Sorry for the Amazon links - just saw you’re in the UK, so they won’t help you a ton apart from noting the brand/make/model. A good soldering iron makes a world of difference as far as how difficult it’ll be to build/mod flashlights. Cannot stress that enough. If you use a dirt cheap iron, modding flashlights will be significantly more difficult. Not impossible by any means, but a lot more frustrating.
*Edit: When I say “good soldering iron” I’m not suggesting you go out and buy a $100+ soldering iron just to get started. The price for my new iron that is a massive leap above my old Stahl - which is itself a massive leap above the generic $5-$15 irons is a whopping $29.99 with free shipping on Amazon Prime. It’s a clone of a discontinued expensive iron.
My uncle gave me a Weller WTCPS soldering station 20 years ago. It’s still going strong using the original tip. It heats up from cold in a little over 10 seconds and can heat a big copper pill given a good thermal connection. Get a used one if you can find it cheap.
Thanks guys - gives me something to go on.
@grantman321 - this looks similar to the one you listed - outwardly anyway, the innards maybe total rubbish but it does have some good feedback.
@logindetails this one is the step up from what I’m using. It’s a clone of the highly-regarded Hakko 936.
Couldn’t find the lower-end Aoyue I’ve got. Amazon UK doesn’t seem to have a listing for the Stahl one many of us have/had, either. The one you linked does look rather similar externally apart from the color.
Any Aoyue that says it takes “T-Series” tips should also be compatible with Hakko 900M tips, which I highly recommend. The biggest difference I’ve noted between my old iron (branded “stahl”, but appears to be sold under many generic brands like the one linked), and my Aoyue soldering iron is that the heating element in the Aoyue is ceramic and is fitted up inside of the iron’s tip, whereas with the generic soldering iron the tip is solid and is secured into the wand with a retaining screw (same as the one you linked). The retaining screw is ultimately what failed on my iron that required replacement. The tip on it had worn out and the retention screw more or less fused itself in place so the tip couldn’t be replaced. With the Hakko-style tips, the tip itself receives heat directly from the ceramic heating element instead of the entire metal shaft of the wand heating up together. So the tip heats up much more quickly and seems to get easily twice as hot as my old generic iron.
The benefit of it getting hotter is the solder melts more quickly and then flows more quickly as the part you want to flow the solder onto can be heated up more quickly. So I’m less prone to accidentally damage something as with the old iron I had to hold the soldering iron in place for more than a few seconds. With the new iron it seems to take 1 second or less as the tip is substantially hotter than on my old iron. The specs on each of the two claim they ought to have roughly the same max temp… though the Aoyue is certainly much, much hotter.
I’m not trying to sell you on the Aoyue being the end-all-be-all of affordable soldering irons, and I’ve got no particular allegiance to them since I’ve only had this new iron for just about two months… I just figure you (and others) could benefit from some of my observations of the differences between my old iron (which many folks on BLF have) and my new one (which I’d never previously heard of and rolled the dice).
I did also buy a genuine Hakko tip to use with it, which may in itself have made a large difference vs the cheap multipack of generic tips I was using. Tried to grab some Amazon UK links… the seem to be the same tips I previously bought from Amazon in the US. The Hakko part # is certainly the same.
Http://youtu.be/J5Sb21qbpEQ
I've got the Hakko fx888 on my "to buy" list. :-)
Thanks for the link - gives all the info I need.
I have one with the ceramic element that had a cold joint on one of the wire connections. The last time I used my 25w iron was to fix that.