QUOTE(proff89 @ Aug 26 2019, 08:17 PM)
Thanks for all the suggestions and tips.
Ya, I think I do need soldering iron with temperature control.
I had bought these 5 meters LED strip that I planned to do an airplane-runway-parking-assist kinda thing that is now kaput because of bad soldering gun.

The temperature controlled soldering iron is not cheap. It is mostly for electronics industries. The iron tip is very expensive too since it has sensor to measure the tip temperature. For general use, I think you just need a dual wattage soldering iron.
The reason the iron tip is not hot is because you were soldering a bigger copper mass like a switch tab for example. With low power wattage, it takes time to heat the copper. However, the longer you heat, the heat traveled further to plastic part of the switch and starts to melt it and probably damage the switch. This is the problem.
For electronics component and small wire, you want to use low power iron like 20~30W and finish soldering in about 3s. For large copper area such as the switch contact or probably ground point on the PCB, you want to heat the solder point as short as possible also, thus need high power rating.
I would recommend something like this. I has a Hakko but it was less than half the price now

. Many China copy (much cheaper) also nowadays if you like. You can easily find tip replacement for Hakko.
https://www.lelong.com.my/hakko-presto-dual...7-01-Sale-I.htm