I decided to treat myself to a new soldering iron recently and ended up buying the WES51. Briefly, specs are;

50W temperature regulated iron,
350F-850F adjustable with 10F accuracy.
ESD safe.
Auto turn off after 90 minutes of inactivity.
Temperature lock feature. ( More useful for business use rather than personal...)
Good tip variety available - down to 0.4mm.

I've just finished assembling Newguy1's tuner kit with this. I found it a joy to use - It heats up very quickly and is comfortable to wield. I thoroughly recommend this iron for anyone looking for a cost effective but capable tool.

As a footnote;
At the moment, Weller are doing a promotion through their biggest retailers with a $20 rebate. Given that you can find this unit for ~$100 from some of these retailers, that results in a $80 final cost. If you want to take advantage of this promotion you'll have to act fast - rebate forms must be received by February 28th. That pretty much means you'd need a local participating retailer. (No, Rat Shack don't stock it)

I'd like a Weller, I'm currently still soldering with my student issue Antex. It's a 25W model with a 1mm tip which serves me fine.

You should try out the Hakkos. You can get a model 936 for about $100. I think these irons are much better than the Wellers.

Mmm.. nice choice. I have the WES50 -- pretty much the same unit (EDIT: identical?). An absolute dream to use, after 25 years of "making do" with cheaper stuff.

EDIT: Yup, WES51 == WES50, except they apparently changed the connectors used where the iron cable plugs into the base unit.

Cheers

Yes, I finally switched from one of the bimagned-termostat-tip wellers to an adjusteble one, and it's just great!

I second that. I have a Hakko 936 at home and it's a very good soldering station. It's a charm to use! I got mine for 150$Can. All parts are available separately for repair and tips are better made to transfer heat from heating element. I can't recommend these enough!

This is what I borrow from work when I play with electronics....by far the best iron i've ever used.

Yeah, I'm done with 'making do' too. It's been too easy to keep using cheap irons over the years because they 'got the job in hand done' and no single project up to now has really justified the expense.
The thought of wielding a non-ESD safe hunk of metal at the CPU in my most favorite gadget in the near future finally terrified me into the decision!

The only other iron that I'm going to keep around now is my Weller Portasol PSI-100K gas iron which will remain useful where portability is needed, for really big stuff where 100W is useful, and for reflow (de)soldering SMT chip resistors. capacitors and the like.

Hmm. Nice. Bit beyond my toy budget though! Maybe next time!

I read some good reviews of the Hakko 936 when I was looking, and it is priced better than the WES51 (regular pricing). Feature-wise they are comparable. The deciding factors for me were;
(a) promotion negated the price difference,
(b) a local store sells Weller and carries the tips,
(c) I was able to examine the iron before buying it, and
(d) instant shopping gratification!

My dad's got a soldering iron that used to be Grandad's. A real one. It's completely cordless, glows dull red to indicate working temperature (allowing a temperature accuracy of probably +/-50%), is heated by a coal fire (not supplied), and can be used on any SMT devices with pin sizes down to about 10mm across. The sad thing is that I'm so ham-fisted that I'd be about as accurate with Weller's finest as I would with Grandad's iron...

Peter

Ha! My Dad's got one of those too, and it was the first soldering iron I saw in use. Can't for the life of me remember what he was soldering. Probably a water pipe.
I'll have to remember to put my name on it as an inheritance.

I also like these tip cleaners. You don't need water anymore.

Tip cleaner

If you want to take on/off SMT parts, I would recommend a hot air gun. I don't bother using soldering irons anymore for simple removal of parts.

Hot air gun

I saw those tip cleaners online and was wondering about how effective they were.

Yeah, the Weller PSI100K has a hot air attachment which works fine for most small SMD parts, and is somewhat more affordable!