Call me a perfectionist (or paranoid or retarded, like some people usually call the ‘audiophool‘), but I always keep my soldering iron only for certain type of tin solder.

The first one is dedicated soldering iron for WBT tin solder (with lead). This is one of my favorite tin solder (but not the lead free one). With the lead inside, we don’t really need high temperature soldering iron. Also, I have a lot of project which need small tip soldering iron. So the best choice falls to Goot CS-31. A 25 Watts precision soldering iron.

WBT

The second tin solder that I used to use is Mundorf Supreme Silver/Gold solder. This lead free tin solder is good on specific purpose (I don’t use it frequently). With lead free concept, usually we need slightly higher melting temperature (around 100 degrees Celcius higher than WBT). So best to use it in not ‘temperature sensitive’ environment and surely a higher rating soldering iron would best to accompany it. The choice comes to Goot KX-40R, a standard soldering iron with 40 Watts rating.

Mundorf

The last one is all-in-one soldering iron for other type of tin solder (well, I use Cardas for the rest of my project and sometime Asahi tin solder for really ‘general purpose’ project). I choose affordable soldering iron from Korea, the brand is Dekko. I just change the tip to precision one from Goot. Well, the tip itself costs around 60% of the soldering iron. At 30 Watts rating, this soldering iron is more than enough for general purpose all-in-one project.

Cardas