I recently got a nice deal on a stereo microscope, and leapt at the chance. I've had a few projects in mind that would entail SMD soldering, and now all I need is a proper soldering station.

My current iron is pretty basic, but gets the job done for splicing wires and DIP work. Now I want something with temp control and a good supply of tips.

It seems like hobbyists are all talking about affordable Chinese T12 stations from brands like KSGER and Quecoo. There are just so many different models, it's hard to understand the features and differences. It also seems like there's a lot of "Reddit folk knowledge" where people just keep repeating what others have said. Eg: People say that some KSGER stations have no case grounding, but nobody says which models do or don't have the issue. All of them? Then people talk about the microcontrollers STM vs STC, but nobody says why it matters.