Advice on a soldering iron and soldering in general?

Cutshaw

Cutshaw

Cutshaw

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So I've decided to get into the "art" of soldering! I've been advised to get a soldering station with variable heat, but that's about all I know. I'm looking for a good quality, a bit on the cheapside(£40?), soldering station that I can easily get parts for, extra tips etc.


I'm going to start simple, making a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack cable for my mp3 player, but I'm hoping to move on to maybe re-cabling some headphones completely, then maybe try my hand at something with a PCB involved, modding a soundcard, making a diy pocket amp. I've been looking at Helping Hands/3rd Hand tools, and I'm surprised at how cheap they are, so that's great!

Any tips at all are welcome.
 
I take it by the art of soldering you mean the art of electronics :p

I'm a dab hand at soldering, even if I do say so myself. I build projects based around the Arduino platform.

If you want a good first project, get down to 'your local electronics store'. They have loads of little kits with all the necessary components and the PCB, you just have to solder the components on to the board. A particularly good one is a USB interface kit they do, there's about 70 different components to solder on, and at the end of it you have a nice board that you can interface your PC with whatever sensors/motors/etc you like. IIRC they give you the software/API to use with it aswell.

Your local electronics store are also good for checking out soldering hardware, though doubtless if you just check the model numbers etc you'll be able to find them online cheaper. I think my setup is now running towards £100-150.

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It consists of:

  • Carry case - important! It was only ~£20 from your local electronics store and has stopped me from losing all the little bits here, there and everywhere
  • Antex 18W Iron and a set of heads - it's a good little iron, but in hindsight I should have got the 22W (or possibly a proper station). Anything from Antex is generally good kit :)
  • 30W desoldering tool - great little piece of kit, saved a good few PCBs and allowed me to salvage a lot of parts from consumer kit that uses high melting point solder
  • Couple of iron stations - it sounds stupid but don't skimp on this, the cheapo one's are a PITA as they fall over all the time, get a good one for a couple of quid more.
  • Breadboards - get more than one! I've got a few stashed away in a cupboard that have good projects stored on them

And then the rest is all bits I've picked up along the way, resistor packs, wire, breadboard jumpers etc.

A few great sites for picking up electronic components:
coolcomponents.co.uk
oomlout.co.uk
sparkfun.com

One of the great things is that any component they have for sale, they have all the datasheets/how-to's/guides listed along with them. It's a great way to start experimenting.

Oomlout is the best in terms of the 'thoroughness' of the included documentation they give you when you buy a component - and I always check there to see if they've got what I want in stock first. Unfortunately they're just starting out so apart from the basic stuff they're a bit lacking. Their Arduino starter kits (ARDX) are by far the best though - highly recommended.

Other than that, might be worth seeing if there's a Hackerspace local to you.

Also try and find some electronics ebooks - there's some really good ones knocking about that give a great beginners knowledge and have helped me immeasurably :)
 
i have a gas one, best one i ever bought i can solder anywhere without having a damn cable restricting me. i used it for volt modding motherboards and graphics cards, replacing caps and all the usual stuff.
 
slylittlefox said:
I take it by the art of soldering you mean the art of electronics :p
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Indeed! I suppose that was heresy!

This is as good an excuse to get a nice carry case/toolbox as any. I'll definitely be looking into that. About the local electronics place, I live in the north where people hurl the haggis, so that might be a problem. There is a local model shop, I should maybe prance past and have a look. I had to google the breadboard and I see why that having a few of those makes a lot of sense. I just wonder if I should be shelling out on a station from the start, you seem to have got on great without one and obviously I'm going to be quite cak in comparison, at least(hopefully) for a while.
 
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zipp0r said:
i have a gas one, best one i ever bought i can solder anywhere without having a damn cable restricting me. i used it for volt modding motherboards and graphics cards, replacing caps and all the usual stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this might be worth considering - wires are a real PITA. Gas also gets hotter, a lot quicker. I swayed towards electric just because I cba with the gas ever running out :p
 
zipp0r said:
i have a gas one, best one i ever bought i can solder anywhere without having a damn cable restricting me. i used it for volt modding motherboards and graphics cards, replacing caps and all the usual stuff.
Click to expand...

Two people have said that I should avoid the gas irons, and I just took them at their word. I should probably have a read.
 
Cutshaw said:
This is as good an excuse to get a nice carry case/toolbox as any. I'll definitely be looking into that. About the local electronics place, I live in the north where people hurl the haggis, so that might be a problem. There is a local model shop, I should maybe prance past and have a look. I had to google the breadboard, and I see why that having a few of those makes a lot of sense.
Click to expand...

Yeah a good toolbox is a good investment. Here's where electronics took me with my final year Uni project: http://projectzed.org (click Blog to see demo's)
 
slylittlefox said:
Yeah, this might be worth considering - wires are a real PITA. Gas also gets hotter, a lot quicker. I swayed towards electric just because I cba with the gas ever running out :p
Click to expand...

it uses normal lighter gas which costs about 75p and runs for hours after a refill and takes about 30sec to reach max temp. solder pro 70, like i said, best iron ive ever bought :cool:
 
slylittlefox said:
Anything from Antex is generally good kit :)
Click to expand...
Word, ****** :cool:

I have a 25W Antex iron in one of those spring stands with a sponge in the bottom and a manual solder sucker. Can't fault the iron, had it for years and it's never let me down. Roll of pre-fluxed solder and it's good to roll :p
 
^

^ Probably not allot in it.

As for a soldering Iron. The best I have ever had is the digital temp controlled one from the high street vendor that begins with an M.

Never let me down.
 
Pinter75 said:
^

^ Probably not allot in it.

As for a soldering Iron. The best I have ever had is the digital temp controlled one from the high street vendor that begins with an M.

Never let me down.
Click to expand...

You mean the ones with the base station? I was looking at them but they were about £40-80 is memory serves =/
 
Sorry for the hijack but does anyone know of a place(just give us a cryptic clue) that sell led cheaply in the order of 1000s of leds?
 
I prefer electric ones for doing bench type work, where theres a lot of soldering involved. I do also have a gas one which is perfect for portability, or using it as a butane torch with the nozzle. Perfect for heatshrinks or hotknifing.
 
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