Well after finally taking my stupidly large bucket-o-change to the bank earlier in the week and discovering to my giddy delight it contained $1001.75c in coins (yeah it weighed about 50kg I could barely carry it) I decided to splurge a little. Here's what arrived to my door this morning...

The Hakko FX888 Soldering Station


Teh Hakko by Ch0jiN, on Flickr

This baby is the replacement for the much revered Hakko 936 and sports some hefty improvements like like a 50% smaller footprint, 20 second faster rise time, a thinner element cover for better handling and visibility and the coolest holder/cleaner I've seen EVER. Given that I've been using a mains powered iron pretty much since I left the fume game 12 years ago, this feels like I jumped out of a B-Double and into a Ferrari.

At the risk of sounding like a d*ck, I think the picture came out really well too

Now when I ordered her, I saw another nifty tool for so cheap I couldn't leave it off my order.


The Third Hand by Duratool by Ch0jiN, on Flickr

I've been using forceps and clamps and my teeth for so long I figured it's about time I made things a little easier for myself and get with the third hand crew. For less than a ten spot, it's a must have.