Ignoramus21203 wrote:
I worked today to fix my BIL's plasma TV. I had to replace a couple of
bad capacitors in the power supply. Working with a regular soldering
iron was rather unpleasant and inconvenient. So, I want to ask, would
anyone recommend a decent soldering/desoldering setup.

i

all you need is a plain $20 or $30 Weller soldering iron that's blue, a
solder sucker, solder braid and some fresh solder.

that's it. seriously.

you can spend a fortune on a station, and some are really nice, but it's
not necessary for replacing a capacitor. Your technique is going to make a
bigger difference that the soldering iron once you're past those nasty $5
black ones that are held together with 3 screws and use a nail as the tip,
and overheat in like 10 minutes. Those things suck.

keep your tip wet and shiny with solder, and don't hesitate to add MORE
solder to a joint that's hard to heat up or to suck all the solder from,
like with those giant through hole terminals on some filter caps.

Also, solder braid sucks up solder better than a paper towel on water.