Soldering

It’s been 15 years since I soldered in anger – and that was a 2 week placement for work experience in a company that fabricated circuit boards for some product that I no longer recall.

So I sat down tonight to do a couple of bits.  Disaster is a bit strong because the house is still standing and I didn’t burn myself but just rubbish results.  In the intervening period I’ve clearly lost all the skills that I ever had, and in my fuzzy recollection of those days, I was a virtuoso with an iron.

My iron was very very cheap in the first place.  A week or so ago, I left it on for hours by mistake and I think that may have degraded the tip.  The point just doesn’t seem to be able to conduct enough heat and it may also be a bit grubby.

I’m scoping out a better iron figuring that it will last for years (I’m a believer in the saying ‘he who buys cheap, buys twice’ but I didn’t want to spent 80-120UKP not knowing that I’d even get as far as trying to use it.  Ah well.

Anyway, I found this on youtube.  Excellent description and clear do’s / don’ts of the whole process.