14 year-old stepson wants to learn soldering

[fhm555]

While i'm no expert by any means, this is my idea of the best bang for the buck in soldering stations for hobby use. Some of you i'm sure will recognize it as the now discontinued Hakko 936, which is exactly what it is, only rebadged for TrakPower. I've got an old Hakko that's still going strong after more than 15 years of heavy use with my electric r/c cars and airplanes and guitar and bass repair and tinkering and it still works a treat.

This unit uses all Hakko tips made for the current 936 replacement as well as any of the 936 pencil assemblies.

TrakPower TK-950 Soldering Station

 

[static0verdrive]

It's important to consider the power (watts) of the iron with respect to what you're soldering - guitar parts vs. electrical vs. circuit boards

edit: for the above I'd use 40w vs 80w vs 25w respectively

 

[BobKos]

I have two suggestions: the book "MAKE: Electronics" by Charles Platt is a good, entertaining hands-on intro to electronics.

And it is very frustrating to try to learn how to solder when the iron won't get hot enough. If your funds allow, the Weller Wlc100 is a nice 40W soldering station for less than $50 (USD).

I agree with this. HEAT is the most important aspect. A weak soldering iron will not make learning very easy. Here's how the whole thing works. In the process of soldering, a soldering tip is heated to the point that it is so hot it will melt solder. That tip is then applied to two separate parts and theoretically they will both get hot enough to melt solder too. At that point the solder is added and melts and graciously flows to all nooks and crannies of the adjoining parts permanently bonding them.

What goes wrong is heat control.

- Too much heat. Destroys one or more of the parts intended to be assembled. This can be direct due to the application of the heat at the point of damage such as an overheated circuit board trace or indirect from the conductance of heat away from the contact point to a heat sensitive area of the part being soldered. Think of a switch with soft internal plastic parts supporting the copper solder lugs. Too much heat and the switch internally turns into a blob.

- Not enough heat. This is the cause of 99.9% of all solder failures. The tip of the soldering equipment in and of itself can melt solder. When it is applied to parts being assembled, the heat is drawn away from the tip faster than it can recover to proper melting temperature. It may allow one to blob balls of solder onto the parts, but the whole process never really reaches that magic melting point where it all flows out. In a best case, these are called cold solder joints. In a worst case and especially with a new technician, it is a failure. It can be very frustrating.

More experienced techs can do WONDERS with inadequate equipment. There's a guy on youtube that can freehand melt 200 pin ICs into place with an iron and make it look easy. Novices and mere mortals need to have enough heat to get the job done. For this reason I agree with the recommendations to get at least an entry level Weller or similar station rather than a pencil iron. Anybody who has recapped a 2004-ish Macintosh PC will tell you the value of having enough wattage. The ground plane in those PCs will draw down a 250 watt gun easily! Buy the young man enough horsepower so that the only limiting factor in his endeavor is is lack of skill. If he has a good controllable iron to work with he will learn fast. If he has a piece of junk it will be a frustrating process.

IN thinking of youtube, there is a guy Louis Rossman that has a number of videos up. He is a professional electronics tech running a small business in NYC. His videos are quite entertaining and run from very technical electronic repair processes and procedures, cutting through gear hype and crap, to the politics and pitfalls running a small business. He's definitely worth a look.

 

[JGbassman]

I have two suggestions: the book "MAKE: Electronics" by Charles Platt is a good, entertaining hands-on intro to electronics.

And it is very frustrating to try to learn how to solder when the iron won't get hot enough. If your funds allow, the Weller Wlc100 is a nice 40W soldering station for less than $50 (USD).

Love your pic! Go Hawks!

 

[Davey28]

Check with these guys and see if there's an electronics enthusiast club in your area. I know there's a hobbyist group in Ann Arbor. Or maybe somebody at the shop would be willing to tutor your kid?

Link Removed

Thanks! I work for FedEx and have delivered to that business! Thanks to everyone for the responses, he is at the table trying the iron out. Lots of good ideas that I will check out this weeked.

 

[Mvilmany]

Search YouTube for How to solder.

 

[Bassman54]

Get him a Weller WTCPT or a WES51. Fairly expensive but I've had mine for 20 years. Also,get rosin core solder. Rosin core for electronics, acid core for plumbing. Sorry if this is redundant. didn't read all of the posts.

 

[Alkali Ike]

Heat the work, not the solder. Remove heat as soon as the solder flows onto the work.

I'm going to mention this again: Lead-free ROHS solder is inexplicably hard to work with. I've tried several brands and none of them flowed well around the work. It also looks "cloudy" like a cold solder joint. Back in the day any modern ROHS-compliant circuit board would have been rejected for looking like cold solder.

Whether you use leaded solder or not, a clip fan can direct the fumes away from you. Wash your hands when you're finished. Nobody will die.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

It's important to consider the power (watts) of the iron with respect to what you're soldering - guitar parts vs. electrical vs. circuit boards

edit: for the above I'd use 40w vs 80w vs 25w respectively

...with temperature control, 60 watts is just fine for all of the above. Because the iron does not get too hot, higher wattage does not cause any problem on delicate assemblies (I have a 1/64" radius long-cone tip on my iron at present, gotten when I first had a paying gig to rework some SMD boards) AND you are not waiting around for things to get hot. It's actually easier to NOT overheat parts with a powerful TC iron, because you get in, solder the leads, and get out, without twiddling your thumbs and heating up the part - but because it's controlled, it does not get too hot - heat is only applied as needed.

 

[Davey28]

Thanks, everybody. He is still working away at the kit his mom ordered.

 

[static0verdrive]

...with temperature control, 60 watts is just fine for all of the above. Because the iron does not get too hot, higher wattage does not cause any problem on delicate assemblies (I have a 1/64" radius long-cone tip on my iron at present, gotten when I first had a paying gig to rework some SMD boards) AND you are not waiting around for things to get hot. It's actually easier to NOT overheat parts with a powerful TC iron, because you get in, solder the leads, and get out, without twiddling your thumbs and heating up the part - but because it's controlled, it does not get too hot - heat is only applied as needed.

I don't disagree - after you've built up some skill

 

[dawind99]

Title kinda says it all. My stepson mentioned to us that he wants to learn how to solder and get into fixing electronic devices. I have no idea where to start with this! Any ideas?

Start with a digital VOM, here are two inexpensive auto ranging options. They'll take AC/DC measurements as well as continuity, resistance. He can test batteries, find shorts or open circuits safely. A VOM meter is essential. A variable temperature soldering station is as well. Do not waste money on a fixed temperature pencil. A fixed temp gun is for heavier work and not useful for what I'm gathering he'd like to do. A Stahl station can be had for 15-17.00 at Parts Express. It's a functional and sturdy little station that will serve him well until he upgrades to a Weller WES-51 for example. Then you're up in the 100.+ range and not necessary for now. Find something small for him to diagnose and repair; broken radio, etc. Here are a couple links to some inexpensive VOM meters that work well and the Stahl soldering station. When he is soldering make sure he has a little fan to blow the smoke away from him and a bit of ventilation. He'll find the VOM meter intuitive and quickly realize that if a 1.5 volt battery reads 1.5 volts it's just about dead Have him do some comparisons; new to old batteries, read continuity ie. one end of a cable to the other, cut the cable to see what and "open" circuit looks like. Give him some guitar cables to fix or have him make some new ones for you. You'll save a ton of money on cables and his soldering chops will take off. Jigs for soldering are fun to make; a couple scraps of wood fastened at 90degrees with a 1/4" hole drilled in one will hold your guitar jack in place while you solder....sky's the limit with jigs in my opinion When you work by yourself it's like having another set of hands and it helps with your design skills and creative problem solving. If he has any questions feel free to have him call me at the shop. David at Revsound.

Amazon.com: INNOVA 3320 Auto-Ranging Digital Multimeter: Automotive
Dawson Compact Digital Multimeter with LCD Display Backlight-DDM422 - The Home Depot
Invalid Link Removed

Thanks

Get him an inexpensive analog or digital VOM meter. They can be had