Bench Multimeter for £30

[Jonathan]

These are my most recent choices:



I got the JBC soldering iron after using some in the lab. I've been doing a LOT of soldering recently. They are so nice to use I couldn't resist. It heats up faster than you can pick the iron from the stand and move it to the PCB on your desk. I can't fault it at all, but even now I've had it for a few months I'm not sure if I should have got it - just so expensive, even via eBay as this one was.

Also pictured are two desoldering options - the ZD-985 is a relatively low cost one with a vacuum pump, which is good but the guns are a bit delicate. I mainly got it because I soldered about 100 fake transistors on to something. Otherwise, for most thing's you're good with a conventional pump, but heated. You can get those for £6 here - well worth it.

I do have an antex iron aswell - had it practically since I was in nappies. Several new tips and a new element, but it's still the same iron ;)



Regarding flexible cables - you can buy the cable separately:

https://www.rapidonline.com/Antex-W0...rSearchScope=1

For bigger stuff I use this:

http://cpc.farnell.com/weller/sp80nu...-uk/dp/SD01900

Buy a few and you can solder very big stuff:



If all you're doing is soldering for CNC machines, I don't see much point in getting anything fancy - it's only really worthwhile if you're soldering delicate PCBs, or just doing an awful lot of soldering. Just make sure you have an iron with enough power to deal with the bigger wires and connectors, but not something that will make a mess of anything more delicate.