I own a few soldering irons. One of them is a Weller with a Curie temperature switch I bought in 1980, model TC202D. Still going strong, although I tend to use it when I am off site. This iron was proudly MADE IN AUSTRALIA (Albury, NSW).
Here are two mods I did years ago that have served to be very useful:
(1) You can solder devices that have voltage on them that would normally have a path to earth (DC or AC). That is, there is voltage on them. I had to do this on occasions, either through laziness, time constraints or when capacitors might still have charge in them. I am not talking mains here, but SELV voltages! Usually soldering irons are earthed and touching the live component can sometimes have negative consequences (to the circuit or your iron) The mod is to insert a switch on the case of the soldering iron box to connect of disconnect the earth, depending upon what you are doing.
(2) Back in 1981, a lecturer at RMIT once built a 6 transistor circuit to switch on a LED on his Weller when the transformer secondary AC voltage had increased slightly, meaning "I have reached temperature". That is, the AC voltage dropped when the iron was heating up. I came up with another solution, to which the lecturer was impressed by its sheer simplicity. Put a series low ohms resistor in line with the transformer secondary and as the iron is heating, an AC voltage is developed across the resistor. Use another resistor in series with an LED across that low ohms resistor and the LED turns on when heating and turns off when it is heated. Works a treat!
For him: Weller products.
For her: Wella products.
Anyone else have hints and tricks for common tools, like soldering irons?