Recommended soldering iron.

[DNSDies]

I got one of these about 2 years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-968A-Digital-Rework-Station/dp/B006FA481G

It's AMAZING. I love it.
My only complaints are that the fume vacuum is awkward, but it's easy enough to remove, the shape of the handle means you more of less have to hold it one way, and it doesn't come with a wide enough variety of soldering tips.

Having a hot air station comes in handy more often than I thought it would.
If you can spare the $175 for it, and $25 for a bag of chisel and hoof tips, you'll be set for a while.

 

[Xian Xi]

that looks like its seen better days I would just bite the bullet and purchase a brand new one

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...d_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_i=B000BRC2XU

http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-Analog-Soldering-Station/dp/B000BRC2XU

everyone has posted some great suggestions, I just purchased a 1lb roll of Kester solder and a desoldering iron:

Spoiler:

Why didn't you pick up an FR300? It's the newer version of the 808 which has been discontinued.

 

[GohanX]

Also how do you know what temperature you should set the soldering station at, is there an average temp or does it all depend on what your doing?

It depends on what exactly you're doing, but I usually set mine (Hakko 888) to around 600 degrees for most things, and crank it up if needed. You don't want it too hot, as it shortens the life of your tips and risks damaging components if you leave the iron on a spot too long. The extra heat is sometimes needed in certain situations, like doing cart batteries.

 

[DNSDies]

with large ground planes, I usually set my 808 to around 340-350c.
If I'm doing something smaller, I do 320c.

I've lifted a few pads on older stuff like SNES cart PCBs. Experiment a bit on stuff you don't mind losing. Like, say, pick up an old VCR from your local thrift store and practice de-soldering components from it with different temps and see what works best.
Hakko 808 and its replacement (FR300) don't have a temp gauge, so you need to use a thermometer of some kind, like an IR thermometer, or get a good multimeter that can read temps.

 

[joecommando]

It depends on what exactly you're doing, but I usually set mine (Hakko 888) to around 600 degrees for most things, and crank it up if needed. You don't want it too hot, as it shortens the life of your tips and risks damaging components if you leave the iron on a spot too long. The extra heat is sometimes needed in certain situations, like doing cart batteries.

This, 6-650F degrees works well for almost everything

 

[Kiel]

Another fx 888d owner here

 

[SmokeMonster]

About the temp, it can vary a lot depending on the tip you use. You'll probably want to turn down the temp for larger tips and bump it a bit for fine tips.

 

[hyper]

Why didn't you pick up an FR300? It's the newer version of the 808 which has been discontinued.

mostly because of recommendations.. that the hakko 808 performs much better than the FR-300

 

[GohanX]

The FR300 is better, but not by a large margin.

 

[goombakid]

I've been using a rebranded Hakko (or was it Ayoue?) soldering station from Sparkfun. It uses Hakko tips and it works way better than what I've been using prior (a RS 25W one). I may get another one in the future, but for what I'm doing now, this works just fine. It was cheaper as well.