After 5 years I finally replaced my $30 soldering iron and wow was I wrong

I've been using this beat-up Weller that my uncle gave me back in 2018, figured it was fine and the new stuff was just hype. Then last week I grabbed a TS100 on a whim and actually fixed a motherboard trace in under 2 minutes that I'd been fighting for months with the old one. Anyone else stubborn about upgrading basic tools or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

hart.sage8d ago

figured it was fine and the new stuff was just hype" hit me because I did the same thing with a pair of wire strippers from Harbor Freight that I'd had for like 8 years. Finally borrowed a friends Klein and the difference in how clean the strip was without nicking the wire was night and day. I was so mad at myself for not swapping sooner. My TS100 is still going strong after 2 years, so you're not alone in that upgrade making a huge difference.

gavinb977d ago

Totally agree with both of you. It's wild how our brains just kind of lock onto a tool or method and treat upgrading like some kind of betrayal of the past. I've noticed this pattern everywhere, not just with tools. Like with my old coffee grinder, I convinced myself it was fine until I tried a friend's decent one and realized I'd been making bad coffee for years. It's almost like you have to hit a breaking point of frustration before you finally let yourself have something that just works. Then you get that immediate payoff and it's like, "What took me so long?

stellanelson8d ago

And that reminds me, the whole "I was so mad at myself" thing really hit home. I had this same stubborn streak with my multimeter - used one of those cheap $8 ones for years until a friend lent me a Fluke and I realized I'd been chasing bad readings forever. I actually ended up buying a new one after that, but kept the old one as a backup for checking fuses and stuff. Anyway, @hart.sage, I feel like you get the frustration of finally seeing what you were missing, right? Like that feeling when your new tool just works and you wonder why you put up with the old junk for so long.