Hakko makes some great soldering stations. Mine have lasted the ages
The army taught me too solder. And one of the first things they had us do, for about a week, was take resistors, pc boards, and other components and make things. No joke, just spend about $50 at radio shavk on cheap components, a few pc borads, and there ya go. The perfect bead is hard to achieve.
Use this to also learn how to desolder, not burn the board or other closely packed componets, etc. I prefer a desoldering wick, over my desoldering pump (manual and iron ones) call me old fashioned, but I prefer the wick.
You can get a lot of your supplies from eadioshack on the cheap. Soldering iron tinning, wicks, etc. Flux, I don't use much in the way of flux ever, but I still keep a jar handy. I would also recommend watching some youtube on what you need, and how to do it.
Once you feel comfortable, go to radioshack, buy a soldering kit (I did a radio) and go to town. Takes about 1 to 2 days if your new. I can knock them out now in about 6 hours with a smoke break every hour.
Word of advice, I needed a cheap soldering iron for something, don't remeber what, but I got it from radioshack, and the iron tip melted away after a day of use...disapointing...so don't buy a radioshack iron, buy something with more quality.
And you don't need a bunch of different stations. You aren't doing specialty work. My regular, old hakko single soldering iron station with a turn dial for temp gets the most work than any of the others. My dual iron, one for the iron one for the desolder, gets used the least. They are easy to calibrate if you have to, I've only done it once in 4+ years I've owned it, and that was because I bought new soldering iron cause my cord got damaged.
Best of luck.
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