My father has a WMD-3 that he's willing to sell (not a weapon of mass destruction, it's a Weller soldering station. Google it) I have a measely PACE ST(no number) and a PACE ST25.
Since I already have 2 soldering stations, it would be a great idea to go to the WMD-3 (since it's a single station with 3 outputs).
I don't have the NEED to change, but it's an opportunity.
The biggest problem is that I'm quite fond of the current iron tips that I have and I have about 16 of them. All of them used and so forth, but still great. The best part about the PACE irons is that they are "muzzle loaded". A screw holds the tip in place and you can easily loosen it and change the tips, even when the element is hot.
I would switch to the WMD if I got to use the same irons, but apparently they are not interchangeable - it didn't heat up.
First question is whether it's possible to "hack" the irons to be compatiable. I couldn't find any pinouts for pace ones but they are different. What i'm dissappointed in is that the connectors are the same, and they can be hooked up, but they don't work. There should be a standard....
Second question I have is that if I do decide to change, are there any weller irons that have interchangeable tips.. and if they do, are all weller irons interchangeable between stations
Thirdly, should I just man up and make the change? WMD-3 might be a bit of an overkill for me, but I would get it relatively cheapishly.
The best solution would be if I could use the PACE irons with the Weller station until further notice, but I don't know...