Like many people who solder regularly, I decided years ago to upgrade from a basic iron and invest in a soldering station. My RadioShack digital station has served me well for the better part of 20…
900 series Hakko tips are the only ones that matter IMO. All of my heat press inserted brass threaded insert and extraction tips are 900 series, as are my ribbon cable soldering tips, and my X-Acto razor hot knife. Any other tip type is secondary limited use case novelty tool.
I think all the other tip types at this point are just marketing to try to obfuscate the ubiquity of the 900 series stuff. Even if you buy into the direct heat marketing nonsense like I did at first, you can etch and cut an offset circuit board inside a 900 series handle to place the element in direct contact with the side of your tips and extend to the full length without the manufacturing tolerance that these normally come with.
900 series Hakko tips are the only ones that matter IMO. All of my heat press inserted brass threaded insert and extraction tips are 900 series, as are my ribbon cable soldering tips, and my X-Acto razor hot knife. Any other tip type is secondary limited use case novelty tool.
I think all the other tip types at this point are just marketing to try to obfuscate the ubiquity of the 900 series stuff. Even if you buy into the direct heat marketing nonsense like I did at first, you can etch and cut an offset circuit board inside a 900 series handle to place the element in direct contact with the side of your tips and extend to the full length without the manufacturing tolerance that these normally come with.