So I gave my huge weller 140 watt gun type soldering iron in my basement a try.

I soldered two wires together. I noticed that, I needed to tin the tip
to properly transfer heat to the joint. Also, after the iron heated
up, I touched the tinned tip to the joint and had to wait a few
seconds for the joint to get hot enough to melt the solder. It's
leaded solder I believe.

This caused the entire wire to become quite warm to the touch (even
through the insulation). My only concern is that when I do this (with
a pencil type 15 - 20 watt iron) I will overheat and damage the
components. How do I heat just the joint and not the entire component
and damage it? (When I do get around to soldering my pics and stuff...

-- 
solarwind
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