We do a LOT of design and construction work. Over the years I have had just about every type of iron and desoldering gizmo made! I do like Hakko but I also used to like Weller stations - except the parts for them were stupidly expensive - it was often cheaper to buy a new station rather than an element! Hakko is good but overpriced.
In the pics below you can see my wife prefers the Hakko but I use a Chinese clone called a 'Sword'. Apart from having to 5 minute epoxy the handle to the barrel I have thrashed it for two years now almost daily and I paid $18 for the entire station in Shenzhen! Hard to beat that!
I have had most desoldering devices and the MOST USELESS one of all was a very expensive Hakko. I sold it to a mate for half what I paid for it after a month - I just hated it. The best thing I have found is the iron shown below with a built-in manual desolder pump. It works VERY WELL and I found it in a little electronic tool shop in Guangzhou for about $25. It is without doubt the best desolder device I have used.
I threw in a pic of my laser machine at work cutting front panels for our current job (next post as max 4 pics allowed per post) - a simply amazing machine that we couldn't do without. We use it for panels, cutting clear plastic parts and also cutting the insulating paper to put behind PCBs (makes perfect holes and creates a 100% professional finish).
