[MadJukes]

Some of the posts on soldering stations are kinda old now, so in the interest of keeping up with the times, I'd love to hear recommendations of a good quality soldering station under $100! I've gotten suggestions between the Hakko FX888D and Jeremy's favorite (over at Project Garage) Blackjacks SolderWerks BK3000LF. Anyone have any input on either, or a different station? I recently bought a Crack and will be venturing into my first DIY project

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

I owned the original Hakko 936ESD and was very pleased with it. I used it several times a weeks for years with no reliability issues. I'm now using the big brother of the FX-888, the FX-951 (again, over the course of years), with great results. Hakko is a staple brand in the low to mid-level solder station market, like MetCal is in the higher-end. The FX-888 is more than good enough to handle any Bottlehead assembly.
 
The Solderwerks station looks very nice, though I've never tried it.

 

[MisterX]

X2 for the Hakko.

 

[MadJukes]

Not to derail the threa

  I owned the original Hakko 936ESD and was very pleased with it. I used it several times a weeks for years with no reliability issues. I'm now using the big brother of the FX-888, the FX-951 (again, over the course of years), with great results. Hakko is a staple brand in the low to mid-level solder station market, like MetCal is in the higher-end. The FX-888 is more than good enough to handle any Bottlehead assembly.
 
The Solderwerks station looks very nice, though I've never tried it.

 
 

  X2 for the Hakko.

Not to derail the thread, but for the Hakko, what tips should I get?

 

[MisterX]

I prefer the T18-B (conical tip) but the T18-D16 (chisel tip) is not bad.
Should get you thru a crack with no trouble.