Great little guide. One thing that's rarely mentioned in soldering tutorials is temperature. With good temperature-controlled soldering stations like the Welle

Great little guide. One thing that's rarely mentioned in soldering tutorials is temperature. With good temperature-controlled soldering stations like the Weller WES51 available for <$100, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend skimping on a cheap pencil iron. Trouble is, I've seen very little discussion about what temperatures to use for particular types of solder. I put this question to one of the EE lab instructors at my university. Their choice is 700-750F for standard 60/40 solder. I use 750F at home with good results. You need higher temperatures for lead-free solders, which is one of the reasons I avoid them.