mtncrvr

oo and excelent supplier for SMB parts and hard to find stuff is digikey.com

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Well, truth be told, my absolute favorite iron is the Metcal MX-500. We bought a pair of them for the lab two years ago, and it is truly the best unit I've ever used, bar-none. We have a stockpile of tips that are perfect for everything from general through-hole work down to 0402 and even 0201-sized parts, and a couple of chisel tips that are about 1/4" wide and will pull a TO220 off a flat copper plate.

The downside is that they are about $500 for the base & handpiece and $20 to $100 each for the tips. On the upside, even the little .016" tips seem to be lasting quite a while. Mtncrvr is right- proper cleaning is important.

Can't quite justify buying one of those for the garage just yet...