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New soldering station advice

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erupter:
Hello fellow electronichers ;)

My thrusted Lafayette diyed on me the other day so I need a new iron.

I know I know: the most repeated soldering station advice is "get the Hakko FX888".
But unfortunately I can't source it at reasonable prices.
I live in Europe, specifically Italy, and this product I can only find on Ebay coming from china or the states (making a total shipped price of more than 100€ before any import taxes!).
I looked on Farnell and RS and the only economically viable option I found was on Farnell:
Duratool -> LINK for 74€.

After this things escalate pretty quickly to the first 119€ Weller.
So I had a look on Ebay and found the Atten AT8586 which looks a lot more bang for the bucks!
Also given I read of lots of you using Atten scopes, I think I can go that route.

But I had no luck sourcing tips and parts, does anyone have any experience with Atten soldering stations?
Any European that can give useful advices?

Keep in mind I'm not an electronics noob: I'm 10 years in the job, more on mixed-signal/digital crcuits than pure analog, so I'm delving with microcontrollers and some smds (although not the 0402 unless needed, I tend to preserve my eyesight ;))

amyk:
If you don't need hot air, you can find the various 936-style clones for a lot cheaper (Atten isn't the only maker of that style station), and while they're probably not as good as the real thing, can be a much better value.

erupter:

--- Quote from: amyk on July 27, 2012, 08:53:42 am ---If you don't need hot air, you can find the various 936-style clones for a lot cheaper (Atten isn't the only maker of that style station), and while they're probably not as good as the real thing, can be a much better value.

--- End quote ---

Ok but then again:what about tips?
What tips can these mount? where do I find them?

electronics-geek:
Hi,

interesting discussion, in europe Hakko seems be hard to get, certainly if you need some spare parts 
I also looked at weller. The pices seem to be much lower in the States, for example the WX2.
Does anyone know if these weller units (like the WX1 and the WX2) can handle both 120 and 240V  mains input? I could not confrim this in any manual...
I know these wellers are expensive bit I like the possibility to be able to combine a temperature controlled 200 watt iron (for the heavy duty stuff) and the lower wattage irons for even smd soldering...

EG   

madires:
What about an Ersa i-Con pico or i-Con nano? Tips and stuff should be availiable even in 20 years. And there's no problem to buy Ersa products in the EU.

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