I agree, Adafruit is well worth supporting.
They aren’t always cheap though, and there is a limit to how much extra I’m willing to pay just because I like the seller.
So the soldering station is hakko and the hot air rework station is atten st-862D cool. Wife promised me if i complete my Red hat certification she’ll get me these.
Can anyone suggest a good desoldering gun? The sucker ones are just too finicky for me.
Now if you want to save a few bucks, I would probably recommend buying the japanese version of the desoldering gun from ebay, and you can get third-party soldering stations that accepts the same tips as the soldering station I use. The tips are the important part IMHO, so saving some money on the soldering station is probably fine.
Finally, if you really want to up your soldering game, consider a microscope: