That looks like a Temperature Controlled soldering station, which has a thermostat affect on the iron, keeping the temp constant to what the dial is set to. The usual non controlled irons do tend to overheat their stated wattage if left sitting out of use.
I have one , not quite so swoopy looking and the tip on mine rides on a ceramic rod. Worked fine till I bought some new solder which refused to flow nicely and would bead up on it. It was flux cored and as I always use a spot of Rosin flux on terminals etc., with a very thin pretinning of the surfaces of all bits being joined, I figured I must have picked up some lead free solder. Bought some 60-40 lead/silver, but haven't retried yet to see if it fixes the problem. Pretinning can be ignored if surfaces are new and bright, but a dot of flux definitely helps, even with the rosin being in the solder.
Get yourself some tip tinning compound, comes in a small press lid tin, about 1-1/2" in diameter, 3/4" deep. It has a solder bearing paste, semi abrasive, that you push the tip into. Cleans and tins in one action. Wipe off the excess. Use the pad on the base. Use it as needed.
I set mine to 35-40deg and got into the habit of turning it back to about 25deg when out of use. Quickly comes back up to hot when needed. What you will find as you become more proficient with soldering that the higher temps are better for a quick in and out method. Parts heat up quickly and the solder also flows into the joint easier and you pull the iron away sooner, resulting in a stronger, cleaner joint, that also cools faster.
Also get some heat shrink tubing, small diameter, to cover and insulate bare wires that may touch. Don't forget to slide it over one side before joining things up. The heat from the side of the soldering iron shrinks that effectively.