#“Is the \u008010 Lidl Soldering Iron worth it? I think so.”
I grabbed one of the Lidl Soldering Iron Kits yesterday in Dungarvan. Video below with my thoughts. Apologies for some of the stuff being off camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQyGAgDACo
Overall, at 10 it is totally worth a punt if you don’t have an iron already.
Regarding the non-standard tips, it turns out there are compatible replacements out there. This seller on eBay has some. Also, Farnell do them for 1.15 each, but with the usual proviso that it’s a minimum 20 order with them, so you’ll need to find some other stuff to buy on the site. Shouldn’t be hard :-)
Maybe next time around, Lidl could go with standard tips, dump the “burning tips” and include some parts to do a simple project.
As I mentioned in the video, a huge part of my DIY and electronics gear comes from Lidl and Aldi. I think there is a real opportunity for one/both of them to do a lot more in the Maker area. An Arduino Start Kit for maybe 19.99 would fly out the door once word-of-mouth got started. I predict a 3D Printer “Thursday Special Offer” sometime around 2016.