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Dear_one
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11 Sep 2017, 9:45 am

BTDT wrote:
Having the ability to accurately feed in the solder with hand and moving the hot iron with the other.


For electrical work, it is usually easy to load a "chisel" tip with enough solder to do the job. My left hand is usually just a clamp. Sometimes, I re-load the soldering iron tip by touching it to the solder spool to continue a job. Torch jobs often work best with solder chunks pre-loaded onto the work. The trick then is to heat the parts evenly, so that it will bridge the gap when it melts. If you miss, you need to draw the solder across with a heated, fluxed probe, but that won't melt all over everything like solder.



Ichinin
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12 Sep 2017, 12:58 am

Yupp, did some electronic projects in 7-9th grade (before college), mostly when i was younger, but i recently started a project making my own solar panels and had to buy one again.

I have also done welding with gas and electric machines (TIG, MAG/MIG).


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billegge
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12 Sep 2017, 5:08 pm

When I was around 11-14 years old my soldering iron stayed on 24/7. The Radio Shack tips use to erode, later I discovered weller which was way better. I was very good at soldering, my soldering looked better than boards inside commercial electronics. I had a lot of control over the solder, I knew how to make a shiny bubble shape, or make solder ride up a wire from a connection point smoothly, or make the solder spread between the gap between 2 wires, I knew exactly how to saturate stranded wire such that it was not too much solder and not too little. No one ever taught me how to solder, I just got better at it through practice.



BTDT
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15 Sep 2017, 7:05 pm

My first kits were those Radio Shack kits that were built on plastic "circuit board." Yes, the plastic would melt if it got too much heat. But even as a kid I could afford to buy them. I think I even have one around somewhere.



Dear_one
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15 Sep 2017, 7:18 pm

Ahh, kits. I never bought any, but I won one at some science fair around 1960. It was a speech synthesizer, on a cardboard base. It had three places for capacitors, which you would choose according to which of ten vowel sounds you wanted to produce. These values were to be determined with a circular slide rule, supplied in the kit. I decided to try some at random first, and just held the third one on by hand, to change it easily. My hand slipped, so the values changed and I got a two - sound sequence, starting with an unexpected consonant. It called me "ma." Then, I made it say "ma-ma." I like machines, too.



AngryAngryAngry
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07 Nov 2017, 8:56 am

I used to be the worst at soldering.
But researched some techniques online that helped - can supply if anyone wants.

I've now got an air solderer and they are AMAZING!



Enigmatic_Oddity
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07 Nov 2017, 11:58 pm

Yes. I bought one to mod my router with a 140mm fan to deal with summer. And since then used it to repair some things.



Dear_one
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08 Nov 2017, 12:54 am

I used to cut an extension cord with my electric lawn mower about three times a year. I always fixed the copper with solder, on staggered splices, the insulation with shrink-tube, and the cordage with hot glue. I will definitely do soldering with my travel kit of tools, just a shoebox or so in total volume.



eric76
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08 Nov 2017, 1:01 am

Most of my soldering was soldering wires to pins on RS-232 connectors.