I also recommend what pinball did for an all purpose bench rig. I have a couple of the old school wtcps ones as well. They use a tc201 pencil and pt series tips. Main difference is that the one pinball cited is variable temp and the wtcps has tips with a built in thermostat. ESD station takes et tips, old school takes pt series.
I know one of my PT series stations was built in the 70's. Been dropped, submerged in water, frozen, and has never skipped a beat. The other two are newer, but still pre Y2K. I had to replace a pencil on the pt, the contacts for the thermostat fused together and tips end up red hot. I use that pencil for cutting and welding plastic now. Along with the old pt series tips that lose their tin.
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