Soldering iron tips. Do you know of a Temu / Aliexpress / surplus something that sells these that any can afford ?

----> https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Soldering-RadioShack-SOldering-640-2184/dp/B073NZ26QM

It reaaaaally pisses me off. This is like a MacDonalds meal now. When I was 14, buying solder did not break my wallet. Now hurts.

 

The fix is called buying a Weller or compatible soldering iron so you can use those commodity priced tips instead of some old, odd-ball RS iron tip.

 

Thanks. Will migrate to a more common iron with lower priced tips. The RadioShack ones am after are non-clad copper. Wear too fast.

 

Thanks. Will migrate to a more common iron with lower priced tips. The RadioShack ones am after are non-clad copper. Wear too fast.

Good move. I still have my old RS iron in the junkbox for nostalgic reasons but the home shop daily irons are both Weller.

 

I ran into a similar problem with expensive Weller replacement parts some years ago, so I built my own soldering station for less than $25.00cdn. I used a 24VDC 2A supply module and a 936 soldering iron from AliExpress. It's temperature controlled and has a digital temperature display.
It works so well that I built a second one as back-up but haven't had to use it yet. Tips are cheap but I haven't worn one out yet. I ordered a second iron that I can plug in and use it with a heavy duty chisel tip for large copper areas.
I can post the circuit if you are interested.