I do have a soldering gun lying around somewhere, but I hardly ever use it. They're great for soldering big wires or connectors, but you can't really work on small things with them. Doing something like the cartridge slot with one is probably fine, as it would especially help in heating up the ground connections, but you should still be careful with it. If you were to try and solder on to surface mount pads with something like that, you would likely lift them right off the board or leave a very nice burn mark. An iron like that could also overstress parts and damage them from heating them up too fast.
Also, the wattage rating of an iron isn't entirely an indication as to how hot it actually gets (although that one does go up to 900ºF at 100W, and a little over 1000ºF at 140W, which would be considered far too hot for working on circuit boards). It's also how well the iron maintains that temperature, or how long it takes to heat up another object to it.
Round 3, fight! (with pictures)
Moderator: Moderators
Yeah, the wattage isnt exactly a rating of how hot it gets. I will say that it is very hot though. I use radio shack cheapies for some things though. ICs and that kind of thing. I really try not to keep that kind of heat on anything for longer than like .2 seconds. Havent fried anything yet though. 
And yes they do leave bad burns. Stepped on it once....when it was hot... 
And yes they do leave bad burns. Stepped on it once....when it was hot...