I don't want to half *** it when I build my DIYPNP. May as well buy a decent kit. Any recommendations?

 

Radioshack 15/30 watt iron. A set of helping hands w/sponge & magnifying glass. Thats what I use to assemble megasquirts. Hasn't failed me yet.

 

That's a good recommendation from Jeff. I use the Radioshack 30 watt iron. I only recommend them because they're pretty good and most people have access to them. Their solder is good as well.

 

then again, Chad managed to do just fine with whatever I had laying around. Just practice. 2k in soldering equipment will not do you any good if you don't know how to solder in the first place. Practice before raping your MS with molten tin

 

^THIS. Soldering can make a mess pretty quickly if you have no idea what you are doing. If its your first time, I highly suggest going to radioshack and picking up a bare circuit board, a grab-bag of resistors, and some fine solder ( I like their .015 silver bearing solder for MS work personally). Go to town on that **** for a few hours and you'll be all set.

 

Circuit Specialists Inc. - 0 has a $30 solder station that is the bomb.

 

Get something with variable heat, it can be really useful. This one got really good reviews. Amazon.com: Aoyue 937+ Digital Soldering Station: Home Improvement

 

We've got a digital soldering Station from Radio Shack at the shop we got for decently cheap.

It works wonders.

 

Radio Shack irons are decent, cheap, and easy to fine.

Around our shop, we use 60 watt non-adjustable Wellers.

 

I use my dad's 60watt Weller station he borrowed from Bell Labs 35 years ago. Still works great, replacement parts still available. I've tried the cheap pencil irons, and the guns, junk. I am looking at ebay for good old wellers but searching "soldering station" the link in Y8S post seems to bring up some nice inexpensive stations, with aluminum housings too. I wonder how good they really are...

Which model? There's a bunch.

EDIT: this one @70W $60 seems pretty nice, but Celsius display:
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9749

 

This one:

Circuit Specialists Inc. - CSI Deluxe Station w/Analog Display (CSI-STATION1A)

replacement tips up the wazoo
replacable wand and heater too.

 

Make sure you get a one of those solder remover tools. I think you work cleaner when you know you can fix mistakes.

 

Cool deal but 40W. Is that enough? I'd consider the extra coin for 70 watts and digital. Maybe.

I had good luck using a blowgun to blow out solder from boards. My mappgas torch works well too.

 

if you're dumping more than 40W of heat into a circuit board, you're gonna destroy it fast.

 

i use this cheap *** station:

Soldering Work Station with Dual-Powered Iron - RadioShack.com



But I cut off the iron and soldered a new iron onto it. I couldn't find the tips for that station at any radio shack, so I put the $7 45-watt iron in it's place and was able to lengthen the cord. I go through maybe 1 tip a every one or two MS builds, so it was important to be able to, ya know, replace the tip.

 

Did you use the soldering iron to solder the soldering iron to the soldering iron?

 

acutally, yes I did. hardcore, eh?

 

I was going to ask the same thing....

 

Oh. Maybe that's my problem with the cheap home depot stick irons. I haven't done any circuit board stuff. I solder thick wires together and use relays, like a real man.

 

How do you guys go through tips so often? I've been using the same ~35 year old 1/8 flat weller tip since...well forever. When I desoldered Meg's Mini's Harmon Kardon amp last weekend I got the needle tip from the basement, dusted it off, and it worked great.