> heat iron to 370° Celsius This sounds like way too much. Yes, with an iron you don't have the luxury of going just above melting point. It's a balance betwee

> heat iron to 370° Celsius This sounds like way too much. Yes, with an iron you don't have the luxury of going just above melting point. It's a balance between heating up workpieces quickly (so that heat does not conduct too far) for what you need higher temperatures, not burning the flux and solder solidifying as quick as possible, because any movement in solidifying solder WILL reduce quality of the solder. Lower temperatures are almost always better than high temperatures. You are better off getting powerful iron with good temperature control rather and keeping temperatures in working range rather than heating iron to very high temperatures and having it cool down during soldering if the iron cannot keep up with cooling. For soldering wires to a breadboard it may not be much of a problem (sans insulation burning off), but I would not risk damaging silicon with temperatures that high. With 60/40 solder temperatures around 300 [290-310] are usually more than enough, depending on workpiece size.