BR60103's 2010 EOY Chllenge (and 2011?)

[rrinker]

Is it a regular iron or a temperature controlled type? A regular one you just plug in is murder on tips, as they continually get hotter and hotter the entire time they are plugged in. I have a temperature controlled soldering station that I bought about 2 years ago and used for everything from soldering track (joints, and also attempting to handlay turnouts) to decoders. Still goign strong on the original tip. I don't know why I never picked one of these up years ago. I used tohave multipel irons, and was constantly repalcing the tip, and having issues where the tip wouldn't stay clean, etc. With the temperature control it stays nice and shiny, and the BEST thing to clean the tip, far better than a wet sponge, is a copper 'wool' pad. They have them in the store, often used to scour copper pots. Sort of looks like a Brillo pad sort of thing, but it's copper not steel, so it doesn't scrape the plating off the tip of the soldering iron.

--Randy