what soldering iron/gun should i get

right now i have a crappy 15w soldering iron looking to get a nice one to put caps on and other stuff
what should i get
budget no more than $75 but less is better but i want a Good Iron

Anything Butane IMO. Easy to move around.

i would perfer that its electric not gas due to i will beuing used it in the house and i wouldnt want to buy gas for it
i may look into that

I use one for automotive reasons. Good point about the house but I figure there isn't much of a difference since they are both still hot

oh forgot about other uses other then computers
i will be using for computer hardware no car stuff

I had a cheap one from Radioshack too which was electrical. I HATE dealing with a cord. Cat ate my wires to my SteelSeries headphones. Wasn't fun soldering it back together. Good luck with finding a quality one.

I would be curious to hear the responses as well...
For delicate electronics you want a good electric one you can control. When I was doing lab work assembling BNC cables and other small thing we were using Weller soldering irons, they worked very well. But its been about 10 years and don't know what a good model would be. Right now I have a super cheap Harbor Freight iron and would like to pick up something better.

Also any recommendations on a clamping station? I've been using binder clips and the back of my car GPS mount

[EDIT] Also a base to put the soldering iron in is very useful if the soldering iron/station doesn't come with one.

Here's one that is similar to what I had used...
Weller WES51 Analog Soldering Station

Bit less expensive model...
Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station

Ok, one more thing is the style holder I was talking about...
http://www.amazon.com/SE-MZ101B-Hel...TF8&colid=3RRUXIB3LSHCT&coliid=I21RTPHG0XAXCT

A good iron is an investment, it should last you a LONG time 10+ years easy, I'd spend a bit more upfront and get a quality one...less than $5 cheapies don't count.

I have read good reviews on this, and generally the makershed doesn't sell crap

http://www.makershed.com/5_40_watt_Variable_Temperature_Soldering_Station_p/mkpe1.htm

Get something with actual temperature control not just wattage control, that's the #1 thing IMO.
Hakko makes fantastic stuff, so does Weller.

The one I linked has a temperature control knob, just just wattage selection.

MCM Electronics, Radio Shack, Jameco, and Marlin P. Jones have decent inexpensive irons. 35W is good for most work, but it has trouble with power and ground pins on multilayer circuit boards and lead-free solder. Those dealers also sell adjustable power irons for $25-50, but most only go up to about 40W, and 50W output (as opposed to input from the 120VAC source) is much better (or 60W for lead-free solder). Unfortunately above 40W the tip can overheat and turn blue when left idling or can overheat copper traces, so temperature controlled is better, and the Goot PX-201 is the cheapest such iron with enough output power (60W) to handle everything: link.

However there are now fancy temperature controlled soldering rework stations for as little as $60-90 at places like Ebay, NewEgg, and CircuitSpecialists.com that can do both conventional and hot air soldering, like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0U00AG0805



If you buy any soldering equipment off Ebay, be sure it's made for 120VAC because a lot of it is for 220VAC.

The price of tips can vary a lot, with Goot costing double compared to Weller and Hakko tips. Xytronics, Aoyue, and some other brands of irons can use Hakko tips.

Don't accept any iron that gets uncomfortably warm to hold or if the metal shaft turns blue.