Does leaving it on for a weekend really fry the tip that bad though? Honestly I've left my cheap iron on overnight plenty of times and the tip still works fine, just looks a little dark. A Weller is supposed to be decent quality, so I'd expect it to handle a couple days without turning to dust. Are you sure the tip was good before, or did it maybe already have a bad coating? Tbh a lot of people run irons for hours at a time and don't see this. Maybe it ran way too hot the whole time instead of the idle temp.

Mine was $150 at a garage sale and I do the exact same thing. I keep a little note on my phone of what I spend on meat runs versus what the same stuff would cost at the store, and last month I got 20 pounds of chicken leg quarters for like $18 and froze them in meal size bags. We eat way better now too because I can grab a pack of pork chops on sale and not worry about it going bad. The one thing I'd say is don't fill it up just because you have the space, that's how I ended up with three tubs of ice cream and a turkey nobody asked for.