When I first got in the hobby I bought a cheap Hobbico 60 watt iron that did the job just fine. But I got tired of replacing the junk tips that would pit and erode. I finally purchased a Hakko 936 soldering station and I have never replaced another tip. Seriously, I bought an extra tip with the soldering station and it is still in the packaging. I bought that soldering station over 10 years ago. Do I do much soldering now? No, not really, maybe a couple of times a week. But I used to assemble my own sub C packs back in the day, so the iron has had plenty of use. I have gone through a couple of the cleaning sponges though. I also recommend a metal cleaner like a metal bristle brush, only to be used occasionally. The problem areas people usually have when soldering are not enough solder on the tip when disassembling joints and not using flux on new joints. I know, rosin core solder and all, but do yourself a favor and buy some rosin flux and always use it on new joints and wires before tinning. And also as said above, get a good chisel tip at least 4-5mm wide. It's the only tip I use, and I have used my iron to solder on circuit boards to fix TVs and PCs.