Saike 898D soldering station
I have got myself bunch of cheap lab stuff. The most expensive of them - Saike 898d rework station. This is the cheapest combination of soldering and rework station on ebay - only 80€. While waiting it to arrive I figured out why all packages from China take a month to arrive - they are in Russian customs for 25 days. Or at least that is why my soldering station was in the post for a month.
The experience of the soldering station so far is amazing. The hot air soldering is as it should be - adjustable temperature, air flow and plenty of nozzles, not some wrecked and broken station in the school lab. Desoldering chips is convenient like it should. Unfortunately I haven't bought solder paste yet, so soldering chips on is still annoying.
The soldering tip part is good to. I managed to damage the tip in a week, because of mu clumsiness. I bough new and wider tip what works really well with everything I have soldered (DIP, SOIC, TQFP). It still is one of the best irons I have used. Ground pads take a second to heat up but compared to my old 5€ iron - still awesome. Its so good to have good soldering station just for yourself, I highly recommend getting one.
My 898D lasted less than two years. The primary of the power transformer shorted. Could not find a replacement online and not going to spend bucks for another piece of Chinese crap. I just finished completely rewinding the power transformer with better quality insulated wire and unit is now working again. Power is on the transformer whenever the unit is plugged in, extremely poor design. I put in a switch that removes power when not using the unit.