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Let's get technical here: a soldering iron is a device that is heated by a resistive element, a soldering gun is heated because it is the secondaty of a transformer. Now that explained, let's go into some detail here. Some of the low cost Ungar irons are about 27 watt, however, they are uncontrolled, that is, they heat up to whatever temperature it can. I have measured that temperature with an instrument (a thermocouple) and the temperature at idle is right about 1000° F! Now thaat is hot! It has tendencies to heat the object up quickly and thus burnng off the flux too fast to do a good cleaning job (I teach soldering to the MIL STD 2000 and ANSI J STD 001B) Now lets address the soldering gun. Remember that it is the secondaty of a transformer so that it does have a low voltage present at the tip. THis is not a shock hazard to the operator, but it is a shock hazard to any wirintg that is connected to any controls or electronics. That voltage will destroy any circuits, especially intregrated circuits, and you will never know why. You just keep repascing blown chips, not knowing that the soldering gun blow them up. <br />Now lets look at soldering stations. Weller makes a good temperature-controlled soldering iron that will maintain a good temperature (±10°F) range. It does not insuce any voltage into the tip, in fact, the tip is grounded so DO NOT work on live circuits with this iron. These soldering station are somewhat pricy, about $125, but they are rugged and will last a very long time. There are others but the prive goes up. Just remember that a good rosin flux and a clean tip is always needed to make a good connection. Use rosin-core solder for best results avoiding any silver as an alloy. 60/40 solder will work just fine. Silver requires more heat and is tricky to flow correctly. Remember to let the part melt the solder, not the iron. The iron is the source of heat only, the part must melt the solder. <br />
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