[peteforde]

I never said anything about there being "one weird trick", just that I love soldering and I do it quite often. It's therefore not at all surprising that I would invest in good tools, especially given that my eyesight has failed a lot faster than I am comfortable with in my late 40s.

As I wrote about it in my comment, I started to list some tools that I have come to appreciate. I didn't even mention my pick and place or my CNC. Does it upset you that I have these, too?

Quite simply, you don't need to buy anything to practice this skill, but a stereo microscope is strongly recommended to anyone doing this multiple times a week.