@Bruce Brown posted:When I bought the Weller WE1010 Digital Soldering Station from Amazon, it did offer the same brass sponge as GRJ recommended but branded as Weller. Cost an additional $13. (Although the Hakko is a fine iron, I never liked its user interface.)
The brass cleaner is really just an add-on that appears in the "frequently bought together" section of Amazon when you pull up the base station kit. It can also be bundled with the basic kit. I got mine a few years ago at a local electronics store after using an Ungar Race Station for more than 20 years that I could no longer get special Thermal Thrust tips for and they did not have the Weller mesh.
Now that I see it available, I'll probably get one in my next Amazon order.