I made it through many years using various size cheap soldering irons from Radio Shack, but after I bought my first temp controlled station about 9 years ago, I was banging my head against the wall wondering why I didn't invest in a good tool years ago. And it needn't be expensive, the Xytronics I have is about $50. But, if you can get good clean joints using the cheapy tools, you will only be that much better with a good one. Considering people made it work when a soldering iron was a heavy copper thing with a wooden handle you heated over a gas flame, any electrical iron is a huge leap and is quite capable of doing the job if you know how to use it and care for it.