Thursday, January 6, 2011

Skill Set: Soldering

A valuable skill set

starMAKE Magazine
January 6, 2011 7:00 PM
by Gareth Branwyn

Skill Set: Soldering

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The Xytronic 258, an all-around good starter iron

It all starts with soldering. Over the years, we've been on something of a mission to teach soldering to all of our readers and we hope we've encouraged some of you to take the plunge. If not, now's the time! It's really not hard to do. It just takes a little practice and a few special tools. Gather up some old technojunk you likely have sitting around and practice desoldering and then resoldering the components from the printed circuit boards (PCBs). Once you have healthy, shiny solder joins (see resources below which describe what these look like), you should be ready to try your hand at some cheap, basic kits. If you can put those together and have them work, congrats, you're a solder samurai! Knowing how to solder opens up all sorts of possibilities... like everything else we're going to be talking about in this series for the month.


Do the "Solder Dance," the geek sensation that's sweeping the nation


Besides knowing the basic soldering steps and spending a little time practicing, here are a few other tips to take to heart:

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Electronics


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

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