Re: Foxy's Latest Project.
Radio Rentals supplied us with Adcola soldering irons. 240v for the houses, 24v for benchwork. They worked well.
When I went self-employed, I bought a Weller mains iron for use in houses, plus a soldering gun. The soldering gun was used for soldering that needed quite a bit of heat and where delicate soldering wasn't required.
It had another use too. The transformer in it has quite a strong magnetic field. Strong enough to use for degaussing the shadow mask in colour TV CRTs. The idea was to do the degaussing fairly quickly before the soldering tip glowed red hot.
I've still got that soldering gun but don't use it for either purpose anymore.
For bench work, I had a Weller TCP 24v 50w iron. A super iron it was too. A magnetic bit that gave it temperature control. It worked for many years but went wrong shortly after I stopped work. I bought an Antex 660TC to replace it. It has its own transformer with a temperature dial. I use this now and it's OK but not a patch on the Weller.
Solder wick was/is essential for repair work. You had to be able to remove components without damaging the print and solder wick was the stuff to use. For solder removal that didn't need so much care, there was the solder sucker. It got nicknamed the 'foop-tah' because of the noise in made when sucking the solder up.
Good soldering and print care is a skill all on its own don't you think?
Edit: Forgot to mention flux remover to make the print look nice after changing components.