I'm a manufacturing engineer (Degree in electrical mechanical eng. tech.) and I dabble in all kinds of electronics projects at home. I have finally broken down and decided I need to get a proper soldering iron (station) for my own use. I don't really do much SMT stuff, but I would like to have the option of making my own boards and reflowing SMT. A desoldering gun for many projects I have would be very handy. Above all I really like the cartridge style tips with the heater and tip all in one unit. It seems to make the tip to handle distance much shorter for better control.
At school we had Weller and Hakko units. I loved the Hakko and the Weller was acceptable but awkward for me. I have gangly long arms/fingers and it always felt like the tip was too far from the handle on the Weller stations. I just couldn't get the right position to feel like I had good control of the tip.
Anyway, I would really like to get one of the discontinued Hakko FM202 stations that can be found for relatively cheap, but they don't seem to come up too often. Looking around at reviews on cheap import clones I found Aouye which seemed to get decent reviews. I found the 2703 (full model number is int2703A+) and it looked like it would be perfect. It has the cartridge style tips like the Hakko that I really like and parts (tips) seem to be readily available. The seller I was looking at wouldn't have any in until mid-July so I have some time to wait.
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this model or similar models from Aoyue that could give some insight on the quality.