Avoid all the fancy ****. The best solder for manual assembly of through-hole parts is still plain ole' 60/40 rosin-core. I like to use the thinnest I can find. At home, I've got a roll of .025", but if all you can get locally is .032", that'll do fine. You can get it at Radio Shack: Rosin Core Solder (8.0 oz.) - RadioShack.com


As to the iron, just buy the damn Weller WES51. Soldering with a cheap iron is a frustrating experience.

 

I use two old cheap radioshack 15 watt irons I have. One with a stand to put the hot iron. Better then laying it out and reaching over it and burning the **** out of your arm.

 

 

nice sweater

 

and what appears to be the infamous fetching cat?

 

I'm going to start blaming that cat for my resets.

 

Amen. I am so glad I bought a new soldering iron station. I bought mine from CSI, it has a digital read out, and came with a free brass coil tip cleaner. And from my experience, GET THE TIP CLEANER. Its ******* amazing. Three stabs into your it with your dirty iron = clean looking iron in seconds.

This is the one I have. Its great. Circuit Specialists Inc. - Digital Display Soldering Station (CSI-STATION2A)

Oh, check out the promotions tab. If you spend at least 50 bucks, you get a FREE gift, like a free DMM! They used to offer a huge plier set, but they are all gone i guess.

Heres that tip cleaner im talking about. YOu can get it at fry's too.
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7499

 

that hot tweezer looks awesome.

 

Thats the soldering iron I use daily.

 

This is why you are still a virgin.

Grrr. I miss the ole' Metcal MX-500s we had at PR&E. You could solder I-beams together with one tip, and then do TQFPs with another.

 

I got one of those butane powered portable multi-tool irons for use outside. It's nice to not deal with extension cords when you're hanging under the dash. I also usually throw it in my tool kit if I go somewhere.

At a miata meet once, someone's CAS wiring barrel crimps came undone. Luckily I had my butane iron. Otherwise he'd have been stuck.

 

I've been using the same $7 radio shack iron AND TIP for the last 7 years. I can solder anything under the sun with it. Leg broken off at the chip on a memory chip, got you covered. I used to desolder memory chips from dead xboxs and then solder those chips into good boards for linux and emulators. Anything thats not BGA I can handle.

When the the tip gets oxidized, I hit it with some sand paper, and tin it. It used to be like an inch long, now its like 1cm. Gonna need to be replaced soon.

What I'm saying is, a great iron does not make a great solderer.

 

I just did mine with 16 gauge

I've had a couple shitty 45watt soldering irons from walmart for years now.. I hate them but they work

 

If you use the hotter irons (~50w) on small circuit boards, you have to be really careful about applying too much heat. You can warp, burn, and even lift solder pads with too hot an iron.

I have a 10w/15w (don't really remember what it is, the lettering has worn off) that I use to build MS (12 in 4 years, none have failed so far) and I use it to fix xbox's and TVs as well. Make sure the tip is in good shape.

If the iron will be hot and idle for a while (say during assembly), or about to be disconnected (let to be cooled) be sure to evenly coat it with solder. On the next use, wait for it to warm up and clean the solder with a damp sponge. Then re-tin it with a little bit of solder.

Doing this will protect the coating on the tip and make soldering easy. Never sand/file a tip, just replace it.

 

judgeing from the work you did on my MS baord cleaning up the mess i made you do an excelent job.

 

I know I'm late on this but the circuit specialists soldering station is very good for the price and replacement tips are cheap.

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

Just turn the dial to 740 and go nuts.

 

it's not really what you use, but how you use it. a guy i work with used to solder for nasa, his stuff is always perfect beyond perfect

 

I use a Master UT200 butane soldering iron. This iron is an animal, yet with the right tip will do PC board work with ease. The variable heat out put is the best part, on its lowest setting it is great for small work. But lets say you need to solder some wires on your car on a cold evening, while it is extremely windy. Crank the heat out put to max, and it makes good solid solder joints. I originally bought it for when I was RC racing, and needed a track side iron to solder my motors, and batteries in. It is 15 years old now and works great still (even the pizo igniter still works).

 

I use a weller but for solder I absolutely recommend Radio shack "high tech" or maybe it's "hi tek" solder. It just flows much better than the regular stuff. Super nice. I've also used ultra premo silver bearing solder but it just wasn't as good as the high tech stuff at radshack.

 

I've had a old Heathkit Gh-170 soldering station with the same tip for about 30 years and done maybe 150 guitar wirings and lord knows how many other jobs. How on earth are some of these folks going through tips so quickly???