Can you put a link here for your mod please. I cant find it again. Thanks.
Of course in these modern safety conscious/litigious times, it would not be proper to suggest old fashioned 60/40 solder as it is not considered safe, so I won’t
I will say I use it and find it is a lot better than the modern solders and it doesn’t eat the tips of the irons as much.
Sn63 Pb37 is a little bit nicer to work with than Sn60 Pb40
Neither are inherently unsafe, and both are MUCH nicer to work with than any Lead-Free alloy.
PPtk
I use following:
cheap 60W soldering Iron (5:money_mouth_face:
cheap 40W soldering iron (4$ but it died)
KAWAH Adjustable temperature Soldering Iron & Hot air rework station which is cheap product brought 60$ locally.
For flux:
I brought 1$ grase like flux paste but it too bad. can’t clean after solder. it contain parafin
So I still use good old Rosin
But then my mods won’t be RoHS compliant!! 
I prefer the old solder too. :bigsmile:
My station (6 years old now). :bigsmile:
:bigsmile:
I made this “extractor” today from some old 80mm PC fans and a Netgear power supply. It works really well at sucking the nasty fumes away from me:
This!
I never understood why anyone would want a pencil type tip for ‘normal’ soldering.
Thermal transfer is just awful with them (downside of a round object : low contact surface ;-)). I love chisel type tips. 2.3 mm for general usage, 1.3mm for small stuff.
Since I can solder single wires on .5mm pitch smd pins and I never will have to do anything smaller, those two sizes are enough for me. I use them in an old Weller magnastat type station.
Good high quality solder, some flux and good tweezers, maybe a bottle of isopropanol, and the fun can begin. 
@Chloe
I like your ‘extractor’!
Soldering fumes burning in the eyes is very annoying.
I like to wear a mask when soldering, all those flux fumes can’t be good for me. I also like to wear safety glasses but as long as you stay out of the plume(like in welding) it’s good.
My soldering iron came with a pencil tip, no idea why those come with it. I can’t really think of an application where it’s the best suited tip.
Sintro, what kind of mask do you use? The fumes definitely aren’t good. Without ventilation I have felt ill and sick the next day from soldering, with heavy feeling in my chest.
I decided to add a filter to hopefully catch some of the fumes rather than simply allow it back in the air (since I solder indoors). I saw some masks on DX that were quite cheap and could possibly fit in front of the fans. Right now I am using small neodymium magnets to hold a tumble dryer sheet in place. No idea yet how well it works as a filter but at least there is a nice scent whilst soldering!
Hard to beat the price of the masks.
I want to build something similar but hadn’t had the time yet. I thought about using filters for kitchen hoods since they are only ~2-3€/pair.
I report back if they work when I find the time.
I have a 3m 6300 series mask with 2097 filters, they have particulate filters and then vapor filters(totally block out paint fumes). When I grind on a grinder my boogers are still nice and clear :). I decided to get it because it’s so cheap and you know it’s quality.
Photos, please… J)
Yuck, that was pretty nasty. I google imaged clear boogers…CERTAIN THINGS CANNOT BE UNSEEN!
The wand would sag from even the light weight of the cable so I cut a short section of awg12-2 Romex, bent it into a loop and stuck it into the stand. No more droop and I don’t worry about the hot iron falling out of the stand.
Before.
After.
Nice mod! I think wand seating was one of the reasons I use the Antex stand instead of the metal one that came with my Aoyue. I had to push it in to seat it.
It is also quite a heavy and bulky stand (left), with integrated solder roll holder. I prefer not to store solder with the wand.
