I don't like buying a new, $10 Lowe's soldering iron every time I need a new tip, and I would love to have an iron where I could swap in narrow tips for certain jobs. However, my search has thus far yielded no such irons for less than $100. Am I overlooking a vendor of mid-range soldering irons?

I bought a hakko 936esd and believe it is a great value.
http://www.hmcelectronics.com/cgi-bin/s ... 0460-0004/

I have used it for general soldering tasks as well as soldering very small surface mount components as shown here.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... =microchip

go to your local radio shack.... thats where i got mine...7$ with volt switch...and replaceable tips

Hmm. I do have a Radio Shack iron here. Two settings: Puny and punier. I tried to unscrew the phillips screw near the base of the tip, but nothing comes loose. I think I'll take the iron over to the Shack and see if the guys over there know how to change tips.

That Hakko unit looks like the ones we have at work. It only lacks a temperature sensor. The price is good, for what it is, but even $80 is hard for a college student to spend on an iron.

For the amount you pay, this little Weller station is a decent value. The power output on these units is variable, but unlike more expensive units it is not temperature controlled. Grab a couple of the different tips and this until will handle almost anything you throw at it.

the one i got from radio shack is cheap but it works really well.... heats up in like 1-2 minutes..... have to keep it on low setting or els it heat up the solder to much and the solder starts to "boil & spit"