For the most part I bought this for pyrography (or woodburning) which is a method of writing and drawing into wood with high temperatures. But there are a bunch of other woodburners out there, why did I buy this one? Well, this one comes with adjustable tips (And boy, do I love my adjustable tips!) for other jobs such as soldering, hot-knife cutting, image transfers and stamping, as well as some lead-free solder, which I appreciate since I was shopping for solder at the time, too. What did I expect it to do? Well, it was pretty cheap, it was meant to be, I think, a tool for beginners and that's exactly what I was looking for. I read some past reviews that complained about the tips breaking off and the temperature control not working and I was definitely hesitant to buy it for those reasons. 'Beginner's tool' should not be synonymous with 'shoddy tool'. It's been a couple of months since I bought it and after a long waiting period (I had to buy a step-down voltage converter since this is a tool from the US and I live in the UK) I got around to using it and I've used it a fair bit since. To address the complaints mentioned before: Thus far I haven't had a tip break on me and, although it does take a few minutes to heat up, the temperature control has been working perfectly (Or at least, it's been working - It's a yellow-orange-red scale so I'm not sure what the specific temperatures are supposed to be, but it's definitely hotter at red than it is at yellow). The tool stand it comes with is a bit minimalist, but it does the job and it comes with everything it's advertised to have, as well as a little guide for using the different tips, which is a nice little bonus. The case is also really good quality, nice clear and fairly tough plastic. One thing I'm confused by is the little plastic squares that come with it, what are they for? Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase, it does my woodburning stuff and other things that I haven't found my own use for yet (But I like having the option there, boredom won't go away on it's own), it's fun and easy to use, great tool for a beginner, and I'm hoping it'll take me past that, too. I think it could be improved by adding some sort of indicator to tell whether it's on or not, nothing too fancy, just a little LED would do fine, but, again, I'm happy with it.
