I use whatever <30 Watt iron I find at radio shack. Any of them will be fine for the lasers. Try to get a fine tip for it. Get the solder with lead in it (so much easyer to work with) and Goot from dealextreme. DealExtreme: $2.12 Goot Super Soldering Flux
i have a weller WD1001 (WD1 w/ WMP 65 pencil) that i use for small and precision soldering...
and an old PACE ST115 that i use with hot tweezers (old TT-65) or a solder extractor (SX-70) to desolder stuff.. (yah.. they're old.. they still work fine though )
also have access to a nice rework station with plenty of toys at work if i need to as well..