Soldering Station/soldering tips for noobs

[En4cer408]

What is a good soldering Station for beginners and for working on keyboards ... and anyone have some tips of ways to practice

[jdcarpe]

Here's a good thread for you:

The Living Soldering Thread



Also, Recommended Reading and Super Awesome Tools and Resources Made By Users!

[derezzed]

There's an Edsyn solsering station on the GeekHackers store for $120.  The Hakko 888 sems to be a good deal for around $100 on Amazon.  What is your budget?

[Lurch]

i picked up a soldering kit from geekhackers.org (the kit i got is now sold out). it was a great starting point, and is still suitable for majority of my soldering/desoldering needs. i found a few old wyse keyboards, which were good for soldering/desoldering practice. after i desoldered a few old keyboards that i didn't care about destroying, i was able to disassemble my poker and put it back together without any issues.

if i had to start over, i would get a soldering iron/station that has an adjustable temperature, such as the hakko FX888D.

just my two cents

[jdcarpe]

Yeah, if you're just starting out, I would recommend a Hakko FX-888D. Get that and an Edsyn Soldapullt DS-017, and you should be good.

[derezzed]

The Soldapullts sold on the GeekHackers store are modified by mkawa to be more durable than stock Soldapullts.  They cost only a few dollars more than stock units.

[En4cer408]

Thanks u guys have been a grate help i was going to buy some cheep thing off amazon. now my question is where to get some cheep keyboards to practice on .. like broken or worn down boards

[heedpantsnow]

Thanks u guys have been a grate help i was going to buy some cheep thing off amazon. now my question is where to get some cheep keyboards to practice on .. like broken or worn down boards

Thrift store or dumpsters of companies with a lot of data entry

[jdcarpe]

Thanks u guys have been a grate help i was going to buy some cheep thing off amazon. now my question is where to get some cheep keyboards to practice on .. like broken or worn down boards

Do like fohat.digs suggests. Get an Apple Extended Keyboard II (M3501) and a Dell AT101W off eBay to practice desoldering switches. Then solder the nice Alps switches from the AEK into the ANSI layout Dell. You have lots of practice, and a nice vintage keyboard with ANSI layout and nice Alps switches.

[KitWasHere]

I soldered stuff for years with a crappy $10 iron from radio shack. I now have a Hakko FX-888D which is a really nice step up but unless you plan on making soldering/electronics a hobby, I would just get a cheap one.

For practice just find some broken thing lying around the house. Desoldering is desoldering, doesn't have to be a keyboard. I've had better success over the years with desoldering-wick (copper braid) than with the pumps and solder suckers. Sparkfun.com and adafruit.com have little kits for sale for electronics beginners, would be a good starter for someone to practice soldering, and you get a little (probably useless) toy out of it

[jdcarpe]

I soldered stuff for years with a crappy $10 iron from radio shack. I now have a Hakko FX-888D which is a really nice step up but unless you plan on making soldering/electronics a hobby, I would just get a cheap one.

I did the same thing. If one can afford a better setup, I'd definitely recommend against that, though. You really have to hone your skill to overcome the limitations of your equipment.

For practice just find some broken thing lying around the house. Desoldering is desoldering, doesn't have to be a keyboard. I've had better success over the years with desoldering-wick (copper braid) than with the pumps and solder suckers. Sparkfun.com and adafruit.com have little kits for sale for electronics beginners, would be a good starter for someone to practice soldering, and you get a little (probably useless) toy out of it

I never had success with braid. The Soldapullt was really the first tool I used that made desoldering not a complete nightmare. Before that, I was using a bulb desoldering tool from Radio Shack. The Hakko 808 I have makes desoldering much less painful, though.

[smknjoe]

I don't know why, but it seems like many people here think the wick and pump are an either or proposition. You need both. You absolutely need some good soldering wick for general de-soldering. The pump is good for larger through-hole components like keyboard switches. The wick is good for everything.

[smknjoe]

...and KitWasHere is right that it doesn't matter what you practice on.

[jdcarpe]

I don't know why, but it seems like many people here think the wick and pump are an either or proposition. You need both. You absolutely need some good soldering wick for general de-soldering. The pump is good for larger through-hole components like keyboard switches. The wick is good for everything.

This is so true. I should have said that I do use braid now, for smaller bits or getting the rest of the solder off pads where the pump didn't quite get it all. Especially on vintage boards where they tend to bend the pins flat to the PCB of every third switch!

[En4cer408]

Thanks alot the hole soldering thread was a bit overwhelming ... and i dont mind spending extra cash to save the headache and i would likt to practice on something close to what im planning to do ... idk may bust pull out some old hardware and mess with it