5⃣ Care for yourself.
- Use leaded solder. It's fine, just don't eat it.
Lead-free solder is incredibly difficult to use, it just doesn't behave.
- Don't work for assholes
- Unionise
Conversation
6⃣ Wire.
Use thin wires when you can. They behave better,
and they shouldn't be holding any structural role anyway.
Glue the insulation down in spots to keep it still.
Thinner wire also steals less heat from the joint.
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Solid core is best for most jobs, multi-stranded only for when it has to move.
Twist stranded wire before tinning. Strip the end, but don't pull the insulation all the way off, use that part to twist.
That keeps the metal away from oils on your fingers,
& gives a neater result.
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7⃣ Good tools.
Get flat-edged side cutters. See how one side is totally flat? You can cut sticky-out things off.
Use curved tweezers to hold surface-mount things down, apply pressure with the point and they won't move.
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For hand soldering e.g. a QFP, pin it down with curved tweezers, roughly tack down the corners, then let go before soldering the edges for real.
That way you don't hold something *and* solder, see? Do one thing at once, your hands are both free, and you're more comfortable.
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8⃣ Control temperature.
Your soldering iron doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to be temperature controlled.
Read the datasheet for your solder again. Use the lowest temperature you can, just above where it melts easily.
Use low temperature solder when you can.
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The cheapest starting kit can get away with is a 5$ soldering iron, a junction box, socket and a dimmer. A setup not to be underestimated and I would say the parts price to quality ratio is amazing, plus the ability to plug in irons of various power. I still use it on my desk.
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admirable, but definitely not what i had in mind as the audience for this thread 😁
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I am sorry, I didn't figure out at first glance that this is a thread for first worlders with the ability to just air mail order anything from chinese sweatshops across the world in a bunch of packages so they can have a fashionable hobby putting prefabricated circuits together.
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that is, i'm not attempting to teach people how to start soldering. i wrote my thread for people who already
do solder, but would like to improve.
if it takes so little for you to lash out like this, you aren't the kind of person i trust to have commenting to other people here
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Unsure if it's intentional but your RT of their tweet is still on your timeline. You probably have to temporarily unblock them to remove it.