Question S.I.S: Soldering Iron Suggestions?

[tealflip]

Good morning. While I'm riding to school, I was thinking about soldering irons. As of now, I have a cheap 25 watt "soldering iron" from Wal-Mart. It can barely tackle PCB's, let alone some wiring. The stand is about as flimsy as a moist hot dog bun. And worst of all: it plugs right into the wall. Since I want to begin some beginner projects *ASHIDA is on my ideas list* and don't wanna burn my thumb again, does anyone have any good beginner soldering irons? I know Hakko is a very good brand, however their items are a little out of my price range. I'm more in the 50-60 USD price range. I did find this iron on Amazon, but I am skeptical. Any help would be wonderful. Happy Holidays!

EDIT: I have checked other threads on this site. However, every single one recommended is either not for sale, or doesn't include what I am looking for.

 

[CrazyGadget]

I would look into the Pinecil, it's really the best bang for your buck right now. You can get a ton of different tips for it too. If you buy through aliexpress, I think you can get an iron with all the tips for around $75 or so. You definitely don't need all of them though, just worth looking through them. If you don't want to wait forever, they're also in stock on Amazon right now for a bit more money. From what I've seen, they tend to go out of stock fairly quickly.

 

[Shipyu]

I'm using a cheap soldering station for years now I bought from Aliexpress :Link
It's from JCD and they have plenty of other tools on their shop.
The hot air gun is crap, I couldn't get any lead-free solder melting on large PCBs (PS4) but the soldering iron heats up quite fast and manages to easily melt large pads such as the 1.8V LDO on the WII motherboard. There is also temperature control that is more or less precise.

BTW, I highly recommand getting the essentials for soldering which are Leaded solder (easier to melt), flux is absolutely mandatory imo, copper braid also useful to clean your solder pads in case you put too much solder. I never bought it, but a box of tip cleaner could be useful to prevent your iron tip to oxidyze and thus not be able to melt and stick to the solder.

 

[CrazyGadget]

To add to the previous post, I made a post on another thread with a list of good tools / materials to have for this hobby:

https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/cost-of-tools.5130/post-54654

 

[tealflip]

Well, thank you all. While I didn't get the Pinecil, nor did I get the Iron off of AliExpress, I did find a good one at Harbor Freight. This iron from the looks of it just has everything I need. A station, a holder that won't flop around, a standard tip type, and it DOESN'T PLUG JUST INTO THE WALL! Granted, I have yet to try it out. However, my father who owns the same model for his job says it works well. If you would like, I can do a review on it once I get some time to use it. Now I just need some flux, a desoldering pen, and something to use as a training platform.

 

[Stitches]

Well, thank you all. While I didn't get the Pinecil, nor did I get the Iron off of AliExpress, I did find a good one at Harbor Freight. This iron from the looks of it just has everything I need. A station, a holder that won't flop around, a standard tip type, and it DOESN'T PLUG JUST INTO THE WALL! Granted, I have yet to try it out. However, my father who owns the same model for his job says it works well. If you would like, I can do a review on it once I get some time to use it. Now I just need some flux, a desoldering pen, and something to use as a training platform.

I recommend the ENGINEER SS-02 Solder Sucker, best I've ever owned

 

[tealflip]

Wow, I almost forgot about this. Yikes.

Anyway, here's some updates:
Soldering iron is pretty good. Doesn't come with many tips, and I haven't needed to buy more types just yet.
Second, I DID get the Engineer SS-02 Solder Sucker, works amazingly. Needs to be cleaned often and usually is a hassle to clean, at least in my experience. Overall, amazing little tool. Haven't needed to solder much recently, but I DID get an internship for an electronic repair gig. Hopefully, some more experience will give me the courage to save up money and FINALLY make a portable Wii. Wish me luck!