TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:Anybody here have good recomendations for a soldering starter kit? I'm sick and tired of my parts crapping themselfes and not be […]
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Anybody here have good recomendations for a soldering starter kit? I'm sick and tired of my parts crapping themselfes and not being able to attempt any serious repairs. Basically I'm looking for recommendations for:
* A Soldering Iron in the $50 range that works good for electronics.
* Common cap values I should just go ahead and order to keep in stock.
* Some sort of "holding device" to hold whatever I'm working on while these meat claws of hands I'm stuck with try to fumble with tiny caps.
* Some sort of gloves, that are flexible but provide at least some burn protection. (again, meat claws for hands)
1) At $50 I think we're looking at "adequate" rather than "good," but I'm looking myself (occasionally) to figure out what I want, but I'm looking at $100+ hot air station combos, so way outside that price range. Someone mentioned the TS100 (also look at the TS80), some of the new small battery-driven irons perform fairly well.
2) It's not just values, it's types and sizes. I feel your pain with regard to cap management, though, and for some reason my eyes fog over when I start digging through Mouser's website.
3) Third hands, as mentioned above. Use that search term on eBay and you'll find a kajillion of them. Planning on building my own big enough for a motherboard, and with light and endoscope (camera) arms.
4) The only thing that comes to mind is kevlar (some types of anti-stab/cut gloves), which melt at 500 degrees Celsius, but remember that a glove will transmit less heat but hold that heat next to your skin. Maybe someone will make aerogel gloves for this purpose, I've only seen winter gloves and fingerless cycling gloves, neither of which help.