(From Cooper Hand Tools)

Bought a high quality Weller WESD51 Soldering Iron/Station from Amazon.com.  I figure I should really invest in a quality soldering iron because it is a tool I will be using for the rest of my life.  I really like the digital temperature display, and it is constantly updated to the actual temperature of the tip, which is nice.  Now I can actually set the temperature to just above the melting point of the solder (~450degF for the solder I have) so that I dont destroy my parts due to heat damage.

We have similar soldering irons in the EET labs and they still work like champs despite being beat up by EET students.