[Aurornis]

I disagree. It has never been cheaper to get decent equipment.

Custom PCBs have been $5/square inch for a set of 3 from OSHPark for many years.

You can buy a usable hot air station on Amazon for the price of a DoorDash meal.

[leohart]

Do you have a recommended hot air station for tinkerer use? I am trying to move up from breadboarding into something more field-deployable proof of concept.

[Kirby64]

Look up '959D' as a model. They're serviceable hot air stations made by a bunch of different white label vendors that are usually $40-60 on the likes of Amazon, cheaper elsewhere.