[sdiy] Starting Point?

[Brian Willoughby]

On Oct 9, 2020, at 3:49 PM, Peter Pearson <electrocontinuo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thinking about this more, if I had one piece of advice to give to teenage me, it would be to buy a proper soldering station like a Hakko 936 or similar (used are pretty cheap!) with a chisel tip.  If I could go back and do my first projects with a station that could actually solder instead of a plug straight in the wall radioshack iron I think I would've made a lot of progress a lot faster.  I'm sure my soldering was bad at the start but a garbage soldering iron was a big roadblock and made me think I was never going to learn.

A quality iron is a must.

A Fluke multi-meter would be another great investment, if you want something that will still function 30 years later and not need to be constantly replaced or upgraded.

However, a soldering station is not necessary by any means. Even temperature-controlled stations allow the iron temperature to vary quite a lot, and a solo iron can be equal quality. I interviewed Weller sales before buying my station, and they said even the stations can't guarantee constant temperature. The only way you have have consistent temperature is on an assembly line where the soldering is performed exactly the same every time. For ad-hoc repairs and DIY projects, you're doomed to wildly fluctuating temperatures, depending upon the nature of what you're trying to solder.

I have a Weller iron that plugs straight into the wall, and it's a perfect iron. One of its biggest features is that I can carry it to a friend's house and repair their musical electronics without hauling around a heavy, bulky, unwieldy soldering station. Don't discount the utility of these less-expensive irons, provided you get the minimum quality.

Granted, my first Radio Shack tip looked like it was getting eaten away by the rosin. Replacing that with, what Radio Shack called, a "long life" tip changed my life. Every Weller that I've purchased has been as good as the best. I do have a Weller station now, but only because you can't buy soldering tweezers that plug straight into the wall (not that I could find). I still pack the wall-iron and Fluke multi-meter whenever I do "house calls" and they've never let me down.

Brian