whats the best soldering iron

Twelvoltz wrote: My tool of choice: Click I will admit, I burn through tips every couple of months but other than that I have no complaints.

I have this same one. Got it over 2 years ago no problem whatsoever.Cris

This may be overkill, but we use this one for work quite a bit. Have to be careful with the lighter gauge wire, or just run it on the low setting. The Duck

Any one ever thought of using a gas torch (carefully)?

Sorry, the gas torch was tongue in cheek except I have noticed recently in -5c (28f)  the gas irons don't seem to want to know, so that might work, how do our Canadian friends manage it? Apropos ROHS solder, doesn't it wear out the bits rather quickly?

I put on a brand new set before I started the last car. They still look brand new. If you're careful and have a "fire resistant" surface to place them on between soldering, you should get a lot of soldering out of a set of tips. I worked around some "not too careful" co-workers and these tips last until they accidently drop them on the floor. The other   issue with this solder tool is the tips accumulate melted plastic/rubber insulation and need cleaning often as this effects the connection.The Duck

howie ll wrote: Any one ever thought of using a gas torch (carefully)?

the link i posted earlier: it's a butane torch (both soldering tip and torch tip). i always use the torch tip except on thinner wires like passlock or sat radio antennas. been using it for over 5 years and haven't burnt up a car yet. just can't be clumsy or careless with it

master ut100si. tips are about 17 bucks for replacements, and you can order parts to rebuild them for relatively cheap.  if you do as many cars as i do you will burn through tips and irons pretty quickly.  i have 6 irons right now i think.  i need to order parts for a few of them.