Cheapest way to learn to solder
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- The best way to learn how to solder is just to plough in and start doing it.
One thing that puts people off is the indecision of which tools to get and how much to spend on them. In reality you can start with just a basic soldering iron, a roll of standard solder, a pair of side cutters to trim leads and something to solder together. You can get all those things for less than $15.
Once you've got into soldering you can then expand your tool kit as needed, possibly with a higher power soldering iron and some other basic tools like a basic meter.
There's a lot of tool snobbery on TH-cam, with people implying that you need to buy premium expensive tools. But in reality, basic tools are fine. You can evolve to more specialist meters and tools as you get a feel for your chosen electronic direction.
Here are some search links to find the tools I used. They are eBay searches starting at the lowest priced first, so avoid the suspiciously low cost and feedback sellers and scroll through to the ones with high levels of feedback.
The side cutters. I use these routinely:-
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price roughly $3.50
The surprisingly usable USB soldering iron:-
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price around $7 inclusive
Generic shady eBay solder. You may be better sourcing this locally or getting a few yards/metres from a friend. You're looking for a 60/40 or 63/37 tin/lead alloy with flux. 0.8mm is a reasonable diameter.
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price around $2.50 for 50g
A kit to build or possibly even destroy as part of your learning experience. (I destroyed my first kit.)
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price from $2.50 upwards
If you go for the USB soldering iron you'll need a beefy 2.1A output power bank or phone charger to run it, noting that on a plug-in charger there will be stray AC leakage on the iron tip that may damage some delicate components. With a power bank you have a portable soldering station that can be used anywhere.
Here are some other tools you may wish to add to your collection.
The very handy 8-in-1 precision screwdriver:-
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price around $2
Jewellers pliers. Choose the flat narrow end type with serrated tips:-
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price around $3.50 to $5
For a meter you can start with a cheap one and upgrade as you get to appreciate specific features.
Watch out for sellers showing a picture of a meter, but just selling the leads!
www.ebay.com/s...
Target price around $5 for a basic meter suitable for bench stuff, but NOT suitable for mains/industrial electrical work. Most of these dinky meters are fairly accurate and a very good first-meter.
For those of you in the UK, consider a meter from CPC as it will have extra safety features for the UK market.
Remember the most important things about soldering. The iron tip should be clean and shiny and you mustn't carry solder to the component on the iron tip. It has to be melted fresh into the solder joint so that the flux can do its job before boiling off.
Then it's all down to just getting a feel for it.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Great scott: "And I need an oscilloscope, and a signal generator..."
Big Clive: "99p soldering iron and a spudger ought to do it"
Great Scott's idea is for genuine exact electrical engineering. Clive's way of engineering is a calculator and fucking about and bodging.
@@neyoid they're under the same general topic yet they're not exactly comparable forms under that topic. I watch both. Perhaps @T C stated what he did for rhetorical purposes, such as to highlight the humor in the differences. Just a hunch. My hat is off in appreciation for Great Scott as well. He is quite meticulous and exacting in his methods, yet is (per video posts as evidence) not without abandon should circumstance warrant it. Similarly, Clive has undertaken some painstaking and tedious activities toward his pursuits as well. IMO
As the saying goes: if it smells like chicken, you're holding it wrong.
Sizzles like bacon
More like burnt chicken feathers....
pork. it always smells like pork. If it smells like chicken you're I'm not even sure what.
@T C If it smells like pork, then what are you???
If it's not on fire, it's a software problem
Can you explain why the flux smoke ALWAYS heads straight for your nose, no matter where you are compared to whatever you're soldering? 😂
Because your body is warmer than ambient, and that makes an airflow up at the skin. And that sucks in the smoke.
RebornRockerVids - because you are breathing air in and out. The air you breathe out is warmer and more humid compared to the air in the room. Hence the flux fumes will tend to drift towards you, as your breathing in sucks air towards you and the breath you expel tends to drift upwards...
I use a cheap 12V DC 120mm fan (like used for PC and electronic equipment) running off a 9V DC power supply to suck the flux fumes away from me.
There are similarities if you watch how the airflow of clouds being blown over mountains hug the curvature of the rockface .
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse It follows the uprising warm air that comes from the rock that is warmed daily by the sun.
It's called "Murphy's Law of Soldering". There are many other versions of Murphy's Law, and they apply to just about every aspect of modern life! 😉
When you talked about burning yourself on the soldering iron, I had flashbacks to my youth.
I was already into electronics back when I was a young child and was using my dad's iron (similar to your old 25 watt thermally balanced one) to build a kit.
Then I accidentally knocked the hot iron off the table and instinctively caught it. Haven't burned myself on an iron since and the times I dropped it I sure as hell didn't try catching it again.
Haha, when I was a wee lad I absentmindedly picked up the iron by the metal shaft... ooh, boy were those some big blisters!!
I've never done that again, but I have burned myself a fair few other ways hahaha
I also do know that reflex, first happy I caught it but there was an instantly regret
Happened to me when I was about 7 years old, my brother used to use soldering iron on our shared bedroom floor, my dad was ill at the time so quite grumpy and was telling me off one day in the doorway and I dropped something, he told me to pick it up and I said no and he thought I was being rude, so I put my hand on floor got a severe burn that got infected and my skin swelled took about a month to heal, Because of that, mixed with a similar experience with hot glue when I was 12 put me off to a year or so ago (im 38 now) now I feel like an old dog.
Try putting your hand right on top of a very hot 30 watt iron. I was fix the speaker connection on my guitar amp then sat the iron on top of it when I was finished. I then proceeded to get up and not paying attention I put my hand on top of the amp for leverage and BAM! Hand goes right on the very hot iron. Needless to say I had a nice soldering iron shaped scar on the palm of my hand for about a week.
@@ale6242 I did the same thing when I was a child, we had woodworking lessons in primary school and sometimes we worked on electronics, and one time without thinking I just grabbed the tip of the iron like a pencil and it was painful for days
I doubt they would let kids solder completely unsupervised anymore like we did back then, those soldering stations had holes melted through them all over the place and I think one time someone poked the iron deep enough to short it out and it cut the power to the class
I'm so excited. I'm turning 17 next month and I bought one of these usb soldering irons because Clive thought they were good for another project, and normally for my birthday I have a hard time figuring out what I want, but this year I'll be getting a bunch of soldering kits from ebay to learn how to solder the right way and have some fun along the way. I do have to give a big thanks to big Clive, because his kindness and wanting to share the world of electronics has really been something that has always inspired me. I've learned a lot from his videos, and I continue to learn more, and I hope one day I'll be able to reverse engineer things the way he does, because electronics have always fascinated me, and I understand what basic components do, but I'm still quite puzzled by the way that they work together in order to create a circuit. That's the next thing I want to learn as I start assembling the kits that I get :)
Haha he didn't reply 😂😂😂😂😂
You sound very smart. I worked in a small electronic factory when I was young. I did a few types of soldering and spot welding components. Im old now and forgot most of it but lately wanted to work on a guitar. I bought a small soldering kit and gonna try practicing a bit. Its good that your interested in something positive and learning skills. Good for you !
@@crypticnxnja you’re mean 😡
@@williamsykes7803 boo hoo
@@crypticnxnja stupid as well hey? 😐
Every time I solder: "don't forget to buy one of those 3rd arm holders". Next time I solder, still no holder.
They can be useful, but also limiting, cos it's a nightmare trying to get the optimum angle for you to solder the joint and actually be able to see what you're doing.
same
@@penfold7800 The are a must for someone with shaky hands like mine
@@kaikart123 I hear ya... I solder like Michael J Fox
It's literally the only thing I'm missing. It will probably only come in handy occasionally but when it does come in handy it's nice. Sadly I don't have one. I have some alligator clips and I'll probably just end up making my own
Clive, videos like this are so important to growing interest and lowering barriers into electronics. Even us poor folk need help getting started. Thank you for what you're doing, keeping it fun, and being so patient. Long Live Big Clive!
I've always held the belief that it's not necessarily the paintbrush that makes a good painting, it's the painter who uses the paintbrush. Despite this, I was still shocked that dinky little 8W USB iron had the ass to solder anchor leads on a mini USB port. I might have to pick one of those up just for the novelty. I have all sorts of fancy equipment these days, but I often find myself having more fun using less-ideal equipment. It sort of adds a challenge to it, I guess. Great video bigclive.
In SOME ways though even in function alone for what you use it for IT IS SUPERIOR, I mean come on you can be out in the sticks if you want to and still solder away for days with one of those and proper banks...
@@bluetrinityhaloseven7244 I agree entirely, I've done some pretty crazy work with some of the cheapest tools. It's just as much your own skill in using the tools as it is the tools themselves. Of course there is an eventual breaking point, 8W is still 8W and if you need 20W to deal with a ground pin, there's no way to break the laws of thermodynamics. But it's still satisfying when you manage to do good work with the cheapest of tools.
What about adding a soldering iron tip cleaner and flux pen. They're pretty cheap on ebay or Banggood.
Tip cleaner: Old cotton rag dampened with clean water. An old sweatsock will do the deed brilliantly.
Ive used a wet klenex for years and only very recenty bought flux seperatly.
Op probably meant actual tip cleaner compound/re-tinner 🤔. Those are useful for recovering tip's wetting. Especially if you use lead free solder or forget the iron on and burn/oxidize the tip.
Cellulose sponges in a tray and a metal scrub pad for the stubborn stuff, the plain kind without the embedded soap. I bought scrub pads that look bronzish at the dollar store that work pretty good. Just stuff them in a metal tin or a V8 can nailed to a board.
I'm still kind of a hobby level electronics guy, but I will say that a flux pen is AWESOME. Instantly makes any solder joint beautiful.
About the 1.18$ shipping tax: One of those Chinese sellers contacted me (on their own, after an order didn't arrive) and told me that the 1.18$ shipping tax has been added for europe because of the current situation. many of the shipping companies these sellers used stopped shipping to europe, or had big problems doing so. They changed to SpeedPAK just for that reason, to make sure you get your stuff. I noticed that since then the tracking works better aswell
Haven't noticed the price or missing items from Ali. Had about 50 shippings coming in this year.
I ordered an rf generator in China the first half of this year, and paid. Got the confirmation that it had been shipped, but after 12 days the status of the tracking changed to 'The seller has cancelled the order. . . '. I contacted the seller, and he announced that I had to pay about € 40.00 before he would resend the item. He said that due to 'the situation' he could not afford the free shipment anymore. Got my money back.
I constantly buy stuff from China via AliExpress and except of some price increases which mostly have leveled off again I don't notice any changes.
This is like the video of my dreams! I've wanted to find that damn screwdriver for years! Cheers, Clive!
I'm not a fan of the type of screwdriver that has a handle+bits, most aren't a perfect tight fit, I feel a 'disconnect' between myself and what I'm screwing (oo-er!), something I think is quite important because over-tightening can lead to bad things happening.
These are built to disposable levels of quality in my experiance, the bits tend to be pretty easy to distort.
That said, worth the £1-ish they sell for as a back up.
He and Element14 parted ways a couple of years ago. Element took over the channel (thebenheckshow) and Ben Heck is now independent (benheckdotcom) but isn't as active. This was part of his decision - the production schedule became too much.
This was a really good video! I absolutely adore videos that demonstrate, especially for beginners, that they don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get into this wonderful hobby. Thank you for demonstrating the point so clearly. I really think videos like this are what will help the hobby grow and bring more curious but discouraged people into it!
I haven’t burnt myself with a soldering iron yet, but I have attempted to take a hot bar out of a fire, and attached my hand to the live connection of a tumble dryer door catch when changing it. Top tip on that one, unplug the dryer, and not the washing machine 🙄😅
:)
Daniel, you are a prime example of the saying "every cloud has a silver lining". Although you have had some dodgy experiences, you've now turned them into comedy gold for the rest of us! Cheers! 😄
K C when I did it I wasn’t best impressed, six months of not being able to use my right hand wasn’t fun, but I find it funny now 😂
@@almostanengineer Ouch, did you at least gain some superpowers like for example writing somewhat readable with your left hand?
And yeah after recovery it does can become a good story (assuming a full/good recovery), sucks at the time though to go through that.
Extra stuff nope, just a scared finger, arm and lack of tactile touch in that finger 😔
Using cheap tools is by far the most difficult part of soldering.
Not really, as long as you don't start with a transformers soldering iron, they are an absolute disaster (heat up quickly but don't hold any heat and make weak joints). Newbies can use fluxcore, it isn't that bad, but never ever cheap out on the solder itself. A good roll can make soldering satisfactory, a bad one can make you just ragequit when stuff doesn't want to flow properly.
I wouldn’t spend any less than $30-$40 on a soldering iron.
Yes and no, not all cheap tools are bad, the tricky bit is discovering what's good/bad.
@@tomclanys Disagree. You're talking about a soldering gun, right? They're quite unconventional and take a bit more work to get good with, but far from a disaster. I've used one as my main 'iron' for over a decade and do sorts with it, including SMD. I don't see why they would make weak joints.
@@tomclanys MOAR HEAT!
Born in 57 In 1970 I learned to solder at school . Went to the store purchased a Iron and have always had one. Ya mean it's not part of life ?
Not anymore
@@1marcelfilms Again the Marxist PROJECTING THEY'RE CRIMES ON YOU.
It’s part of my life, once you go with a soldering iron you never go back to your solderless life
I live in WI, USA and I haven't seen any of those extra shipping charges on eBay so far. I still recommend that my students get a 25 watt Weller or another brand of soldering iron that is UL rated and outlet powered as their first iron just for safety, longevity and that many of the Weller and Radio Shack irons include a small amount of solder.
I still have all of the soldering irons I have ever purchased and so far they all still work even with some having thousands of run hours. The only one I have ever had issues with is the temperature-controlled station and that was due to the cable on the iron developing a break. Replacing the cable to the unit brought it back to being useful and I made the cable about 3 feet longer so I could have the station on a shelf above the work area.
I guess I can see the point of starting out with a very cheap iron but I never want very cheap tools to spoil a new person's entry into the world of electronics.
i remember one of my first irons. soldering a set of speakers, and hearing the 60 hz humm come out of the speaker. my second(electric) one had a ground pin.
sometimes you can get a free meter from harbor freight tools. not great, but they do work.
nothing like getting distracted and transferring the iron from one hand to the other as if it were a pen.
Places like PCBWAY support Shared Projects, you get a small cut if others order your project. (lots of neat projects a click away)
have you ordered from PCBway ? I am looking at getting some circuit boards made up for a project
Also a tip for starters: If you have smaller gauge solder, you can use a Butane lighter (preferably a jet flame one, but any grill lighter that has a longer neck will work well) to do some rougher cable soldering jobs. Simply put both sides of the to-be soldered cables together, and wrap the solder around them a few times. It will make a pretty solid connection, and you can follow it up with some heat shrink tubes. There are also heat-shrink solder butt connectors, that are just a normal heat shrink tube with solder in the middle. Clive made a pretty good video about them as well, I can recommend it if you want to work with them. But beware: if you use the heat shrink butt connectors, some of them that are lower quality can't make a proper contact and will not dispense enough solder for a solid connection. So if you want to buy a cheap butt connector that you will use for higher currents, or just don't need the convinience of them, just use normal solder instead.
You've got more than one metre?
Stop bragging. 😁
I thought 2 metre was made mandatory this year? lol.
@@chrispartosbro4555 I find 30.48 cm to be enough.
Certainly, I've never had any complaints.
Call me unskilled, but i absolutely cant operate the manual wire strippers. They always squish the insulation and tear out strands of wire. Buying an automatic (hand powered, but with an intricate inner mechanism) was an absolute game changer.
Exactly the same happened to me after buing 2 wire strippers, 1 of them was manual as you described it....
So I came back to old school technic: lighter + nail to remove the insulation 😋
I remember getting a blob of solder on my hand it dug a pretty good hole in my hand. That spot hurt for the next couple of weeks after that. And still got the scar from it I was 13 at the time it happened.
That solder must have been rather cool, whenever I dripped extremely hot solder on my limbs it would just roll of leaving a trail of minor burns that would stop hurting after a day.
@@emilychb6621 I'm not sure I just know when it hit my hand it hurt
A common condition when you've been doing electronics for a while is the ol' "Gear aquisition syndrome".
@Demo Noun. gear acquisition syndrome. A tendency to purchase more equipment than justified by usage and/or price.
Actually, the EU now has regulations of not selling lead-based solder to hobbyists any more. We can't get any of it. Speaking of that, I've heard a nasty joke: On your next Halloween party, you could go as Brexit. You don't even need to dress up, just all the time say goodbye to everyone without actually leaving. Sorry, I couldn't resist, I know it's a shitty situation for you all...
Can you still import it from other countries?
@@Gooberslot Probably only when you're lucky so that it slips through customs. Also, from some time next year on, they will charge import-VAT even for small imports (like if you order something from China) instead of letting everything go that's below a certain value (I think around 20€). No idea how this is going to go, and how much it's going to cost the taxpayers, because the procedure is probably much more expensive than the revenue in import-VAT, but who knows. It's kind of messed up right now.
These videos are priceless Clive. Thank you so much for adding more educational/inspirational videos to your channel. Please continue you to make videos of this nature. I am by no means a beginner, but still greatly enjoy videos demonstrating the fun of electronics, with a low barrier to entry. Keep up the great work
I remember starting at the phone company in '70. First day there my new boss took me out to the distributing frame where there was a 240 lug practice block mounted. He watched me do the first few and left, every time I completed wiring the whole thing he'd inspect it then have me unsolder and clean it all. Did that for the whole day, filled a whole bag with wire scraps. Then for the next year I lived on a rolling ladder wiring like that all day.
Ever since then soldering has seemed very easy.
That's why the telcos went from solder to wire wrap -- to speed up things and reduce the time and materials. Solder is great, but when you're connecting many 25 pairs, nothing beats a punch-down tool.
Such a gem to the community! Slowly getting through your vast library of videos, and like many, I want to learn as well. (For my r/c hobby) Thank you for this one especially
I love that iron!
Still working through delicious 90's era 60/40.
Yes! Build stuff or alternately un-build stuff. That's what I did and still do, only now I get paid for it as well as for a hobby.
Excelcior!
Yeah the 60/40 is the best. Well in my country u can mostly only buy that. And it is very cheap.
@@patriksezerins9517 63/37 is superior. Slightly lower melting point (183 vs 188c) and doesn't have a semi-solid state. It just snaps from liquid to solid.
@@skrenos I havent heard of 63/36.
Does it have 63%tin and 36%lead?
Thank you for taking the time to make this video, bigclive (the comments around 13:03 and 14:47 are important too!).
"You never forget your first .... soldering iron"
you get a 3$ 25w soldering iron here in India which is obviously not thermally balanced, but there are even cheaper versions available close to a dollar or two which suck. For its price it gets the job done but surely not good for most work. I myself started with it and upgraded to the yihua 939bd+, which is amazing and also had a real neat wiring and a clean double-sided PCB inside.
Hey Clive!! I think AvE got inspired to solder after watching your video, he posted it today lol. Here's the link th-cam.com/video/8zE5QpgjpPg/w-d-xo.html Watch from the 1 minute mark to 2:05 How well do you think he did? Lol
I guess Dave the Kangaroo would vomit during the part on cheap multimeters. Thumbs Up!
Nice little project as well as good informative video on tools and items to start out @BigCliveDotCom
Clive, I have been soldering since the ~Late 50's~ I was in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1968, doing Avionics Communication Repair, and I MUST SAY, this is "The BEST" beginning Soldering Course I have ever seen!
Thanks for showing the "new electricians" ~How Its Done~ !!!
Don't be intimidated, newbies, you need about a billion years of experience to hold stuff like Clive. Just get some poster putty ("blue tack") and stick it down to the table.
Ha, and here's me who started soldering with an old screwdriver heated on the stove.
The saying I go by is that you should only ever buy a tool twice. First time get it cheap. Then when a tool gets destroyed, get a more sturdy version of it since you clearly use it a lot.
Soldering is northing to-do with electronics really?... I been soldering since i was 12 years old. Mostly wiring looms & cables. I don't know much about electronics sadly. i just about know what a resistor does.
I luckily started soldering wheni was 13 so i won't have to worry about that.
Great video Clive I love soldering good informative video @BigCliveDotCom
I started with a cheap draper from B&Q. I'd get through irons quite often. Usually because the tips would corode away.
I ordered 2 rolls of 'Leaded-solder' from a ReSpectable company in 2019 and they sent 'Lead-free' solder instead. I argued with them on the phone about it and they sent a ream of new requirements for 'Lead-free' provisions and legislation. Look after what 'Lead-based' solder you have, if that's what is preferred, and also the tins of flux, which may be next; it being the greater 'vapour raising' substance in the soldering process. Cheers Clive. Keep Well, sir!
Lead free is shit. It's doesn't bond and creates so many issues
You can still get leaded solder. You just can't use it for production. As a matter of fact for military and aerospace you have to use leaded.
@@pentachronic Thank-you Gazza. Military and NASA say lead-free is no use! I see Rapide selling ordinary leaded solder in 100g rolls. I'm a hobbyist and even after saying that to the company I dealt with down the phone, they wouldn't sell me ordinary electrical solder with any lead content. There must be a worry that I'll try and eat it or something of that idiocy or scale of stoopid!
There's an incredibly dodgy cheap store where I live (the kind that's rammed floor to ceiling with pans, kids' toys, suspicious electronics and cans of drink with non-English labels). They sell those side cutters at £2 a go so I buy them in multiples. They don't last long but at £2 each I don't care :)
They sell plug in mains soldering irons too, but I'm too scared to buy one and plug it in.
My son’s an electrician so I’ve “ acquired “ quite a quantity of his tools and a fluke meter as well. I keep nudging him to buy a soldering station but that’s work in progress. In the days before electric soldering irons , at least in our household, dad used to have a series of copper irons ranging from small to humongous heated by the old kerosene blowtorch. Used to be a bit of muttering when said torches jets became sooted up and blocked. Happy days though.
I ran into the same issue when ordering lead based solder, my favorite brand (Cynel) is now in short supply on ebay so I ordered 1kg of it from TME and had to sign up as a company for them to sell it to me, not big deal as all I had to do was select "Company" and fill in the usual personal details :)
Pretty good video for anyone wanting to start out. One think i think you should mention for any younger people that may be doing this there whole life, fume extractor. One can be made from a simple pc fan pointed away from you. I personally dont solder every day so I'm not worried about the vapor from the flux. As you said i just learned to breath before the smoke rises. But for beginners i think a fan pulling the smoke away from them could help then concentrate on learning to solder easier if smoke is not going in there face.
The thing that impressed me the most about that cehapie USB iron is that it heats up to working temperature faster than any other iron I have in my collection.
Not sure, but maybe the 5V needs less safety standards, which will place the heater in a more efficient place.
@@erikdenhouter I suspect the lack of thermal mass in the tip plays a large part in it.
a good and educational video for newbies
Ben Heck is totally independent again BTW!
My advice would be to just solder a lot. You can get giant practice PCBs. Start out with through hole and work your way to surface mount. Don't be afraid of messing up too! That's how you learn. An essential tool for me is a pair of helper arms as well!
pcb holder...
those arm thingies are not all that great for holding boards while appling a bit of force while soldering they tip over easily
so i guess i learned something.. you cant carry solder over to the joint.... and the fumes are flux, not a generic toxic byproduct... (although you probably shouldnt breath it) that would be one (1) of the reasons i suck as an electrician.. :)
This is so good, learning to solder from a master.
It took me a long time to learn to solder well: it was in the 80s, I had the wrong tools, and there was nobody to teach me.
By the time I got to electronics in school, I was vastly better than my teacher. About 2 months in to the school year, he apologized said that he had nothing to teach me and told me just to turn up for tests and he would pass me.
Common disasters and their possible remedies.
I grew up on heathkit projects in the US. My father would buy them for his college classes, then draft us youngsters to build them for him.
I still go out every few years and buy some small random kits like led flashers, jack-o-lantern candles, etc. One of my bigger projects last year was to build a 9x9x9 led cube.
There is a long list of what could be added to basic soldering equipment, Flux pen, bottle of flux liquid (Topnik TK83), flux paste, tip cleaning sponge or brass wire wool, helping hands stand with crocodile clips, desoldering pump, higher wattage iron for higher thermal mass jobs, to name a few :)
I was trying to start with the absolute minimum. That lets people try soldering, and if they take a shine to it they can then evolve their kit.
I’ve been scared of buying an iron since buying one from maplin that couldn’t melt soldier
Probably 99% tin solder. That needs a MUCH higher temperature than 60%/40%. The latter about 184 °C, the first 340 to 400°C.
Dude, had the exact same experience. Then I watched Clive's old "learn to solder" vid and bought the exact same solder station. Never looked back :)
Do *not* melt soldiers! Melting solder is ok. And *toy* soldiers.
Thankfully there aren't many nations in the world who can melt soldiers. ;-)
@@kc5402 They came close at Chernobyl.
There is a new usb C digital Soldering iron there not cheap though well over 100 bucks American @BigCliveDotCom
Ben Heck parted company with Element 14 quite a while back. He's got a new channel on TH-cam now, and his style hasn't changed.
@Viktor Petrov th-cam.com/users/benheckdotcomvideos
I looked on Ebay for one of those USB soldering pens and in the picture have they have twisted off the metal bit in the cap! :)
$5 soldering iron from Walmart, comes with solder. It's saved my butt on a few remote jobs.
I just got materials to start practicing soldering this week!
I had much more budget to work with so I went with:
RadioShack Flux, 60/40 solder, and wick. $20
Yihua 852D+ : $61
Mastech MS8268, $34
Although, I'm not sure if I need a bench power supply yet. I was thinking of getting some secondhand ones that colleges occasionally sell but unsure if I should even spend that much without having practiced enough on my soldering.
make your own ;)
For a bench supply you could get a computer or even server power supply off ebay. For the ATX computer ones there are actually chinese breakout boards, that allow you to just break out the 3.3, 5 and 12V rails from the supply. Alternatively you can modify it yourself.
@@3vIl3aGl3 I use computer power supplies That I take out of old machines, mostly for the high amperage 12 volt section. You just have to make sure it's grounded unless you put it in a plastic case and remember that the green wire has to be grounded to power it up. I've been using one supply for my subwoofer amp since it can supply up to 17 amps at 12 volts.
RadioShack? What universe are you living in? They've been defunct for like 10 years now.
@@Dee_Just_Dee Apparently they're still a thing. I think they've been bought by another company.
One comment: I have discovered that buying a good quality fluxed solder saves a lot of time. Cheaper solder doesn't flow quickly.. if at all. Thanks Clive
I have only one question- why do Americans always say ‘sodder’?
I',m not sure when the L got dropped.
My father Taught me how to solder braze and weld when I was a boy every boy should learn
I'm 12 and I already know how to program solder weld and forge all thanks to my dad
It was my oldest brother, who recently retired from a career as an electronics technician.
And not girls?
@@mfx1 pfft no obviously girls can't weld /s
I learnt soldering by myself when I was 8 yrs old... my dad didn't teach me
A really good iron to use is the TS-100. I chose that over a Hakko 888 and it's absolutely awesome. I can run it either on a laptop power supply (12-24v) OR I can use it with a +3C battery pack. There's also the TS-80 which is USB-C powered, but it's a little more weak compared to the 100. But both give you digital temperature, shutoff, current, and lots of other options. And the firmware is open source IIRC. There are some good firmwares online. Lots of great reviews on youtube, as well. I think even Louis Rossman got one and said it was awesome.
That white colour where the top layers of your skin has cooked, oh, good memories of my youth
The extra shipping is for speedPAK which is fast shipping (1-2 weeks). If you use regular china post now it takes 6-8+ weeks. I assume a lot of sellers don't bother with slow post as they will get complaints
You taught me the "two handed claw" method 5 years back, in the "make a ghost detector" video. Yet I will watch this video, beginning to end.
I tried the amp setting a while ago on unfused and connected it to 630v 550uF caps... 4 in series... it went BOOM.
For the people in the UK, the best option would be to get the handskit kit from Amazon. £13.99 for a soldering iron (surprisingly with a switch), tip cleaner and stand, solder, snippers solder sucker, 2 different tips tweezers and more.
Really hard to beat that value, and yes, I have it and I'm happy with it.
Found some dodgy solder. Tip: the flux (smoke) should smell a bit sweet while using. But when after soldering your lips taste salty, stop using it !
Why?
Why stop using it ? Because I have somewhat sensitivity in my lounges, and I felt my bronchi cramp slowly and starting to make noise. I think they have put saltpetre in it as a flux, like for plumbing, but worse. And the salt on my lips is plain annoying.
B.t.w., the sweet smell is the rosin flux. My old fashion favorite.
Acid core flux tends to be salty, yes. It's not suitable for indoor use without strong ventilation, nor is it suitable for electronics work due to the corrosive properties. Good advice!
Acid flux generally means zinc chloride, and our tongues seem to react to it in a similar manner to sodium chloride (table salt).
Rosin flux generally means pine rosin, and it smells vaguely floral and somewhat pleasant. Inoffensive, at the least.
@@elitearbor Thanks for that info. Here two 'bad' examples:
www.somersetsolders.com/solder-wire-1mm-for-brass-zinc-copper/p610
www.canfieldmetals.com/solid_wire_acid_core.htm
My concern is that the package it came in did not have a word of explanation on it. It was a small amount, in a clear plastic tube with yellow top with a hole in it to let the wire out. It was not more than a meter long, and sold in an small electronic shop.
Excellent instructional video!
The US postal costs have gone up because people noticed that because of a treaty, it was cheaper to send a package from China to the US than it would be to get a package sent from your next door neighbor. The treaty assumed that countries would be sending roughly the same amount of stuff back and forth.
Not allowing lead in solder is pretty funny. We used to use tin loaded paint on ships to prevent biofouling but they made it illegal because it was leaving a trail of death in the ocean. Lead is pretty inert unless you ingest it...
The most important tools of all? Clive's fingers!
Solder tip cleaner brass sponge in tin. Harbor freight has a basic 7 function multimeter for $7 USD.
I saw some one using blue tack to hold thru components to one side so you can flip the board upside down and they don't fall out. Great tip.
both good suggestions especially the brass wool/sponge.
one simple handtool I have always included, is a pair of Transverse Endcutters. They can also double as a crude heatsink, aid against heat/flux backflow up under wire insulation if you didn't have any anti-wicking heatsink clamps. Primary addition to a soldering kit, is a pair of safety glasses, especially if you are doing desoldering, and snipping wire/component wire ends that fly off in random directions...
10:17 So, uh... Ben Heck and Element 14 parted ways about two years ago. "The Ben Heck Show" has now been re-branded as "Element14 Presents" and Ben is doing his own thing, with much less frequent YT video uploads.
You need some kind of tip cleaner too!
Dirty soldering irons won't heat the joint properly and will make you frustrated when nothing melts.
My preferred method is a damp kitchen sponge (yeah you can buy purpose-built sponges but a kitchen one is cheaper. Cut it to the right size for your soldering iron stand or whatever you're using)
You can also buy the curly metal tip cleaning thingies. I don't like them as much as a sponge though. They don't seem to clean as well, especially for burnt-on flux residue.
If you want to be really cheap, a few scrunched up facial tissues or toilet paper works pretty well too, although they get used up quickly.
I'd advise against the older trick of wiping it on your jeans - while this does clean well, if you get into that habit and forget you're wearing shorts one day.... Ouch!
I have one of the older USB irons, with the 555Timer touch switch, to solder high mass connectors and such I found a trick. An ebay buck convert, and a usb socket, Juice it up around 6+volts and it will flow some pretty large terminals. I'm sure it cuts the life of the element, but i've done it a dozen times and its still going.
Lead-free solder is hysterical BS.
Lead free solder isn’t to protect the hobbyist from lead, it’s to protect the people working with it 8 (or more) hours a day and the environment from the electronics manufacturers.
mrb692 It was only ever for keeping it out of the environment, since leaded solder was never a meaningful workplace hazard, since lead does not vaporize at soldering temperatures. If anything, lead free has made the situation worse, since the real hazard from soldering is the flux fumes, and the higher temperatures needed for lead free mean using fluxes with much harsher fumes.
There is also a full-on mains powered, adjustable soldering iron for $9US I'm eyeballing right now, it's called "80W LCD Digital Adjusted Temperature Electric Soldering Welding Iron 180-500℃" And it uses the tips of the 936 so I can get my beloved knife tip.
I was impressed with the cheapo USB soldering iron, Been soldering over 60yrs and even took a NASA certified soldering course. Bottom line, PRACTICE ! 73 & tnx 4 upload!
I bought a kit off eBay for £12 and haven't used it yet. Will try it out today and I bought a small amplifier to solder together for my first try. Will let you know how I get on and thanks for making it not seem daunting or dangerous. Thanks for your videos Clive, also I saw a guy who looked just like you but thought it must not be you as you are in Isle of Mann and I live in England :)
My problem with starting to solder isn't the cost its having a kit, now I know. I have resoldered my pc power button wires back on (as they are non standard) and soldered a Sega crystal in to change its speed so im getting somewhere.
Thanks for the video Clive. I was skeptical about USB irons. I'll have to get one and a meaty power bank too. And I need some more Poundland screwdrivers.
I like Kester and Radio Shack 60/40 rosin core. (My roll of Kester is from the 1970s and it flows beautifully. Not much left so I save it for the important stuff.)
I've also used the generic stuff included in those Walmart soldering irons, but it's garbage.
The video comes just as I did this around a week ago. I'd recommend a fan too to vent the fumes. Ideally you'd be in a well ventilated area, and with your face far from the solder, but I noticed that I ended up leaning too close withouth noticing. More than I anticipated. The experience was more or less the same as you described, went to aliexpress, got the cheap 5-7 euros mains voltage soldering iron kit, reused the side cutters from my 3d printer, got the same 6 euros clock kit you did 3 years ago or so (the one with the acrylic laser cut case), a spool of solder for another 5 euros from my local supplier and off to the races. Certainly not the easiest for a beginner, wasted the first tip inmediatly (didn't knew I had to prep the tip), in one spot the traces started to show, my fingers are burnt in a few places and the work ain't pretty, but the clock works mighty fine, that is for sure. My (mild) regret is not getting a usb powered one, since it probably would have made my life easier, cable wise.
My wire strippers are my four front teeth. Been working great for 20 years. If I close my jaws, they leave a very tiny hole (probably ca. 0.1mm diameter) which works beautifully for stripping wires up to about 1.5mm diameter. I have somehow developed an insanely efficient instinct for how hard I need to bite to get it just right for any wire. It's much faster than a hand tool :) Anyone with me?
Built one of your A4 Gallium supercomputer boards this week with cheap China solder and snips...tho a nicer temp controlled iron (love it heats fast). Never used flush cut snips before WOW.
May have to get separate flux to deal with the lower quality rosin core...LED legs didn't want to tin easiy.
That little turd of soldering iron isn't that bad for $5, I took mine apart, modded it and now it's a turd of beast lol. I use it just about as much as my ts100
i started with the cheapest i could get.
-2$ multimeter from ebay
-5$ radio shack iron
-10$ of solder
-20$ of parts from china (resistor assorted, capacitor, diode, leds, varipot, 555timers...)
-build my own PS with a transformer from a comodore PC
for less than 50$ you can start doing electronics projects.
later i bought a analog scope, because the digital one are too slow and dont show in real time i hate that.
great video - bought the older version of that iron when you tested it in a previous video and is still good, but having a proper on / off switch have bought this one too, great little iron exceeds all expectations. Thanks
Which flows better, 63/37, or 60/40?
I bought one of AvE's ruler kits from his Etsy store page some time ago, and my iron (Aoyue 469) absolutely cooked the included surface mount LED 😥
According to the product listing on Amazon, it is a variable power 60 watt device with a temperature range of 200° to 480°C.
The PDF manual on the Aoyue site however, says the temperature range is 300° to 480°C.
The iron's power supply is no help either, it just has a rotary dial, with a label designating power levels 1 (low) thru 8 (high)
Regarding power supplies, I once bought a 12V 8A power supply from eBay from China for a project and it was defective in almost every way. Among its numerous faults, the ferrite bead on the end of the cable was fake: appeared perfectly normal but had no core, was just a molded piece of plastic.
I've had pretty much zero soldering experience, apart from looking over Dad's shoulder as a boy, but I've recently managed to make my own bench power supply from an old desktop PSU, as normally I'd only need 12v or 5v for things. I think I've wired the LEDs wrong as they don't work now lol, but I've got binding posts with 12v 5v 3v and ground in there. Saved me a few quid, and really fun to do, plenty of TH-cam guides.
Ahh burning skin. Not a solder related story but burning skin one. A few years back I was recoiling a DIY ecig. I accidentally ran power through the terminals whilst bridging them with wire, it got so hot, so quickly that it basically lightsabered right through the side of my finger, instinctively I went to put my finger into my mouth to stop the burning and put the wire in my mouth instead (yup) and did the same to my lip. Neither of the cut/burns hurt whatsoever, just left a relatively deep, crusty line across my finger and face.
One of my top ten derpiest moments.
I have a bad experience with my USB soldering iron. It eats tips, they start decaying after just a handful of solder jobs, it runs very hot. It's a great item to have just in case but not one to use. You can get a more "proper" soldering iron for maybe just 1-2 currency units more.
Though mine is touch activated and it never seems to turn off properly AT ALL, or maybe it turns off at random, i bet if it had a proper button, it would be less bad - it only needs 7 seconds to heat up anyway. Maybe i get a new one, maybe i figure out a way to mod the one i have.
We sell this kit (includes 2 soldering projects) at the Hobby Shop where I work:
www.jameco.com/z/EDU03U-Velleman-Start-to-Solder-Education-Kit_2175541.html
I'm currently planning to connect 100 LEDs as 5 strings of 20 LEDs to an Arduino, each string of 20 will consist of 4x 5 LEDs in series and be switched through a IRLZ44N MOSFET. But I don't want to use a PCB to connect it all up, so are there any tips of how to losely connect all the needed components (the FETs, the needed resistors and the LEDs) together with some nice enamel copper wire? I've got all the components here (including power supply, soldering iron, multimeter, snips, solder and all that kind of stuff), but I haven't thought of how to physically connect it all together so that it works... (Also, the thing onto which the LEDs are supposed to go isn't ready yet, and I also don't know how to program an Arduino yet, but these are just more steps on the way, during which I'll be learning more stuff that I totally don't need to make my living, but who cares, LOL)
8786D is still very much available, although mine took 3 months to arrive from China, via Poland.
I got my 60/40 solder from CPC without any problems. Element 14 seem to be calling themselves AVNet now. Keep your tip in a vice!
I HIGHLY highly recommend getting a name-brand solder (for example: Kester). Don't get a china one for the very reason bigclive says here -- they can be unpredictable. If you're just starting out, you could be doing everything 100% right, but the solder won't stick because it's crap. Cheap out on everything else -- solder with a lighter if you want, but if you get the wrong solder (I now have two 1lb rolls of it, oops) you. will. get. no. where.
Don't we all have soldering iron burns? Thought it a right of passage thing... Our courts just ordered an end to the "problems" of which you speak with our postal service. May or may not get back to normal soon.
I like how he actually use a cheap but functioning tools, unlike most TH-cam channels if it is not JBC or Hakko it is garbage. The professional are definitely spoiled by their expensive tools and forgot how the started.