Soldering Station Suggetions

[drz400]

So, I'm going to be that dumb kid in class who asks the stupid question that's obvious to everyone else. I've been using the hardware store standard issue 25 watt iron up till now. I just recently read about the negative effects such a thing can have on pickups and have started looking at getting a solder station. But here are my questions:

1) What are the advantages, other than isolation from the iron's transformer, are there to a station? Just greater temp control?

2) What property does lead-free solder posess that requires a different setup? Higher melting temp?

Thanks all
-TR

Stations are usually temperature controlled so as you put the iron on the part it autmatically supplies extra power to heat the part up, the tips last way longer and they are much more fun to build amps with

Dont bother with lead free solder unless you have to for ROHS reasons, it sucks and has harmful chemicals that have been considered worse than the small amounts of lead. Some lead solders are higher temp, some are not, you can forget about shiny solder joints if you use it and the reliability has not been totally tested.

If you are an iron type guy get that cheaper Hakko, it has outlasted every Weller I ever had

[David Root]

MickeyC, thanx for the "Novel", that was very helpful to me. I have been wondering about so-called "audio grade" silver solders and whether they make a difference in MI amp circuits. There's so much hype in the "audiophool" world I have been reluctant to shell out the big bucks for it.