To All:
Feller writes to ask: 'Is a soldering gun the same as a soldering iron?'
(He's stumbled upon the TULZ Series, got down to Chapter Three, is trying to tool himself up for some electrical repairs.)
The basic answer in this particular case is 'yes,' an induction-type soldering gun will work. But forget the battery-powered 'cold-heat' portable soldering iron. Too small for most automotive repair work, such as overhauling your starter or solenoid.
You don't use an induction-type soldering gun for circuit boards nor solid-state devices but you can use them for soldering on tube-type equipment, such as antique radios. For circuit boards you generally use a 'soldering station,' which uses a soldering iron heated by a resistance element (as opposed to an induction coil). Why? Because the induction coil sets up a POWERFUL magnetic field that can scramble the brains of most integrated circuits.
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The TULZ series still produces a surprising amount of mail and it's interesting to note that the messages rarely ask about repair procedures. Instead, they ask about tools or sources of parts. Apparently, these folks are having no trouble maintaining their bugs, ghias buses and Things; they don't burn up their engines nor wonder why their front tires only last three months :-)
-Bob Hoover