Michael Kennedy wrote:

snip

What did you make your desolder station out of? I'd be interested to see
since I'd consider making my own as well.

I am not the party to whom this query was directed, but I too made
a desoldering station; I used the vacuum pump from an IBM 360/30
mainframe and a new commercial head and filter unit (Weller?, I
forget the brand and the unit is in storage) which at the time
cost me perhaps $10.00.

For SMT work, see my homebrew solution at:
http://www.cybertheque.org/homebrew/smt-rework-tool

Regards,

Michael