1. I'm a fan of metcal soldering stations myself. Used them for years at work. Also wanted to mention using distilled water in your sponge vs. tap water. It will help your tips last longer.

Posted at 6:24PM on Oct 28th 2007 by Bones

2. "[Forrest M. Mims III] freaked me out a bit when he commented on the post" - You're telling me! He has a lot to answer for, as it was his books that started me off. 15+ years ago when I first read one on the 555, I'd never have thought that I would end up designing microprocessors that go into almost all mobile phones, PDAs, media players, printers... Sir I thank you and I take my hat off to the new generation that are showing their warez via Hackaday

Posted at 7:39PM on Oct 28th 2007 by Sheldon

3. I'd love to see a more in depth article on pcb prototyping at home. I've seen a few around on the net but they're not too detailed.

Also basic starter projects would be awesome, sourcing out the parts (ala sparkfun) would be a sweet addition as well.

Posted at 7:49PM on Oct 28th 2007 by Matt

4. I loved the soldering how to, as i am a fan of hacking/modding equpiment to suit my needs, but i am new to the whole building my own projects scene, what id really love to see would be some how-to's on other basic things, like using multimeters and what the information it gives means, some simple write ups, like [ladyada]'s tv-b-gone(which im buying the kit as soon as i can afford it) and the like

Posted at 9:18PM on Oct 28th 2007 by Hatchetbearer

5. i still have the forest mims books i bought back in the 80's when i became interested in electronics. very fond memories. i'm sure 10s of thousands of us started with them.

Posted at 9:50PM on Oct 28th 2007 by phishinphree

6. that reminds me of my station: http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=15140+TL
i love it

but on a side note i prefer 63/37

Posted at 9:50PM on Oct 28th 2007 by Bird603568

7. You can find 100% isopropyl alcohol at Costco. That's the stuff. 70% stuff at the drugstore is nasty and the 91% alcohol is not much better.

Also, I used one of those cheap Rat Shack irons for years, the one with the interchangeable heating elements that screwed in. I kept it going for a long time by using antisieze compound, which you can get at an auto parts store, on the tip threads. And also by buying the "good" iron tips instead of the cheap caca copper tips they sold.

Posted at 10:48PM on Oct 28th 2007 by David Moisan

8. As i work in electronics i like those metal wool balls for cleaning. we solder our parts in then cut the legs, wash the boards under hot water with dishsoap. then after boards are tested and calibrated we spray them with a confroming silicon spray from mg chemicals. that does great at preventing corrosion.

Posted at 10:58PM on Oct 28th 2007 by tzarkyl

9. for as much as i like the altoids tin pocket amp, does anyone know of a similar project that can be used as a portable/battery powered-guitar amp? or, best of both worlds, a circuit (either with two inputs or a switch) that can take a line level or a guitar input, and amplify either to headphones level.

Posted at 11:54PM on Oct 28th 2007 by joey y

10. Yeah seriously, where's the metcal love?

Posted at 12:59AM on Oct 29th 2007 by alex

11. I am new to the whole DIY electronics game. With some help from my computer repair teacher (High school) I was able to solder together a simple beeper with a switch. This how-to gave me some tips on how to solder without burning the board like I did with the beeper. A suggestion for the future would be to give some direction as where to go next, like ideas for a beginner project or something that doesn't involve special kits but stuff that can be bought at radio or something. Great Job again.

Posted at 1:22AM on Oct 29th 2007 by John

12. I suggest contact spray, it's made for cleaning circuit boards and such. It also just dissapears shortly after you sprayed it on.

Posted at 5:15AM on Oct 29th 2007 by Korvost

13. I'll second (third?) the Metcal love... until you've used one, you'll wonder what could make an iron worth such a high price.

Metcals use high-frequency switching for heating rather than pure DC resistive elements. This translates to almost instantaneous heat, extremely fast recovery, and the ability to load in the heat on larger components (like voltage regulators with large heat sink pads).

For those questioning "what wattage", that depends on the size of components you want to solder. A low-wattage iron does not necessarily equate to a lower temp. The higher the wattage, the more capable an iron is of "pouring" heat into an object without losing your set temp, such as those regulators I mentioned. My 50W ESD-safe Weller has done a commendable job on just about every SMD project I've done to date, but it falls face down when I have to solder heavy-gauge wire... it just doesn't have the meat for it. The Metcal I use at work blows those types of joints away.

Posted at 8:58AM on Oct 29th 2007 by MacGyverS2000

14. Heh - I didn't mean to disrespect the metcal's. Almost every pro shop I know uses them because they are great. But, like you mentioned, they are quite expensive (though arguably worth the money). I wanted to recommend the Hakko as an inexpensive entry-level T/C station. It's one that just about any hardware hacker can afford and will greatly improve their soldering experience.

IMHO

Posted at 9:31AM on Oct 29th 2007 by Josh Malone

15. I just commented on the previous post, so I won't replicate that here. But I would like to echo the sentiment of getting a temp-controlled iron. Check howardelectronics.com : They've got some really nice Xytronic irons. An analog one for $50 and one with a digital readout for $80. They both come with the copper-wool type cleaning stand.
The best thing about a t/c iron is that your tip won't oxidize so quickly. Even a 10W iron will heat up to 750-800F given enough time. An oxidized tip sucks at soldering.

Posted at 11:31AM on Oct 29th 2007 by Mike Webster

16. I am a Hakko 936 jockey and got one of their brass colored wire wool tip cleaners when I got the iron. Much better than a wet sponge at cleaning and it doesn't cool down the tip when you wipe it. You can buy the same thing in the houseware dept. of your local store. Every few weeks I shake it over the garbage can and out comes all the solder - it doesn't stick.

I have also found foam drive bit holders with an adhesive back at my local hardware that are ideal for holding my assortment of tips to the side of the temp control. They were made to stick onto the side of a cordless drill.

I live and work in a marine environment where the green fuzzies live and breed. For thru-hole boards I trim the soldered leads close to the board and then go back over with the iron and a touch of solder to create a small round mound of solder - no corrosion and nice and smooth without the normal micro-meathooks.

For great control of the amount of solder I use the smallest diameter solder I can find.

For SMT components I use the small end of a chop stick to hold the little buggers in place. You may want to carve it down a bit but leave the end flat and you can rotate the part into perfect alignment especially with a slight bit of beeswax on the end.

Favorite anti-corrosion spray - Boeshield

Posted at 2:59PM on Oct 29th 2007 by kelpcowboy

17. Forrest Mims III is awesome. It is cool to think that he visits this site.

Posted at 3:29PM on Oct 29th 2007 by Brandon Kinman

18. Actually, While metcals are expensive brand new you can often find them pretty cheap on eBay.

I got one for $50 after a little watching and it's in great condition. Well worth the money.

Posted at 4:21PM on Oct 29th 2007 by alex

19. $10 radioshack soldering iron is the tool of the pros.

Posted at 7:35PM on Oct 29th 2007 by kael

20. I have a weller wtcp that was my dad's in the 70s (still made by weller today). Sort of temperature controlled (you have to swap out tips), but, with small tips, I can do QFPs. _on an iron 30+ years old_

I second everything y'all mentioned, but would like to suggest a few more tools needed especially for SMT work.
- Tweezers - I've found the difference between $30+ and $3 tweezers to be minimal. especially when they are shared with other hackers - get extras, they "wear out" (some ME jacka** tries to tighten a bolt with them). I buy the streight and bent tip ones from digikey (i forget the manufacturer, if there is demand, I'll look up the digikey #)
- Quality flux - the pen is good, liquid flux is better. Kester no clean or water soluble is good.
- Quality solder - kester 60/40 no clean, or water soluble - seriously, it will produce better joints.
- Flux cleaner - worth every penny for cleaning off boards.
- Isopropyl or ethyl alchohol - available at wallgreens/cvs etc - for cleaning boards, tweezers, reworked components.
- Solder sucker - not for smt work, but great for through hole
- Solder wick - getting expensive as the price of copper rises, but invaluable for smt work.
- Magnifying visor - I have a busch and lomb one I got off ebay new for $20.
- Quality flush cutters - $25 cutters are actually far far far superior to the cheap ones spend the cash, but protect them with your life!

I actually have been teaching soldering to new members of our robotics team at GT. We went from through hole to reworking RAM DIMMs.

With my setup, I can do down to 0.020 in pitch components. If there are viable leads, it can be soldered. What I am looking for is a good way to solder QFN (no leads) and BGAs. I have seen a few chinese hot air rework stations, but am unsure of their quality.

Thoughts?

-Andy

Posted at 1:42AM on Oct 30th 2007 by Andy