[sdiy] Starting with SMT hand-soldering

[Neil Johnson]

Hi,

Interesting thread.

> 1) A couple of you mentioned multiple irons - is that for a variety of tips or is there some mad two handed soldering technique you've got going. No - I'm serious.

Depends.  I use 0603 by default and they are small enough that I can
desolder with a single iron.  If you see yourself doing lots of SMT
desoldering then I suggest getting a proper tweezer-like desolder iron
would be better (faster, neater, less damaging, etc).

> 2) Temperature controlled iron - nice if you've got it or vital?

Vital.  As you down to smaller tip sizes, and use different solders
with different soldering temperatures, having temperature control is
the best way.  Sure, you could hack it with a fixed temp (or even and
older Weller Magnastat), but a good temp controlled iron should be an
investment that will last you a while.  Oh, and the tips will last
longer too - which is important given how expensive they are!

Cheers,
Neil
-- 
http://www.njohnson.co.uk