Preferred soldering iron

[ghotiphry]

After spending some good, quality time with my American Beauty, it really lives up to its name.  I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

I've not yet figured out if it's actually temperature-controlled

I think you can be pretty confident that, if it displays the actual temperature of the tip in its display, it'll be tempreature controlled.
It doesn't have to be this exact brand and model, but that is the kind of soldering station I'd advise if you're going to be doing regular work on PCB's without going for something like what Mayfly uses at work. Although, for $600 that one actually seems pretty attractive to me.

 

[Sovereign_13]

I think you can be pretty confident that, if it displays the actual temperature of the tip in its display, it'll be tempreature controlled.

I know it tells me what temperature it's set to.  I'm not 100% confident that it tells me what temperature it actually is.  But it works well for the frequency and type of soldering I do, which is all that one can really ask of a tool.

It doesn't have to be this exact brand and model, but that is the kind of soldering station I'd advise if you're going to be doing regular work on PCB's without going for something like what Mayfly uses at work. Although, for $600 that one actually seems pretty attractive to me.

Are we still talking about the Hakko?  I bought mine for like $98USD from Amazon.  Not sure where $600 came from.  Typo?

 

[ByteFrenzy]

I think you can be pretty confident that, if it displays the actual temperature of the tip in its display, it'll be tempreature controlled.

I know it tells me what temperature it's set to.  I'm not 100% confident that it tells me what temperature it actually is.  But it works well for the frequency and type of soldering I do, which is all that one can really ask of a tool.

It doesn't have to be this exact brand and model, but that is the kind of soldering station I'd advise if you're going to be doing regular work on PCB's without going for something like what Mayfly uses at work. Although, for $600 that one actually seems pretty attractive to me.

Are we still talking about the Hakko?  I bought mine for like $98USD from Amazon.  Not sure where $600 came from.  Typo?

No, the $600 is about the Metcal MX-5200 that Mayfly uses at work. But I'm beginning to wonder if maybe that includes just the base. Well, I stopped wondering and checked - with two soldering tips it's going well in the direction of $1000 - that's no longer amateur country...

As for the temperature display, does it fluctuate when you use it? My ZD-987 has a power save function and when that kicks in, you actually see the temperature start to drop, and climb again when you pick up the soldering pencil. If yours remains stationary at the set temperature I would doubt it's actually temperature controlled. But as you say, if it does the job, what more do you ask?