[jtiner]

Ron - I purchased the Hakko FR-301 gun. It was something like $320 I think, and was much less expensive than a full de-soldering station setup. I realize it doesn't replace a nice station, but it's portable and doesn't take up bench space and does what I need it to do. At some point I may purchase a larger tip for bigger solder blobs, but the supplied medium tip works for most situations. You do have to empty the solder chamber and clean the target often, but that's expected. And the filter needs to be replaced occasionally, but several replacements are supplied with the gun.