Bench Soldering Equipment / Tools Suggestions

[Mackspower]

Japanese made side-cutters. Fujiya is my go-to, I'm sure you'll find a reseller in your home country. Japanese made blades and cutting edge tools stay sharper and last longer than any other I have tried over a very long period. Their needle nose pliers are also good.

Shout out to the USA also. They do a pretty good job of making digital multi meters, Fluke makes good entry level gear these days . . . worth the price, last forever and you won't be second guessing measurements.

 

[barfle]

If you are going to work on ampleflyers you need to come up with a (preferably non inductive) load resistor.
You will want something capacious so it doesn't over heat in five seconds if you are testing amps at high power.
https://www.surplussales.com/Resistors/NonInductive/Res-NonInd_list.htm

Wow, a 50W 8Ohm load resistor for $5. That's a steal at ten times the price. Unfortunately, I tried to buy one, and they have a $25 minimum order requirement. I'll see if they have other stuff I can use.

Edit: No problem finding plenty of other stuff. They have RG6 and S-video cable.

 

[Tribby2001]

This is more exciting than I anticipated!

That should fade away after you've burnt your finger a few times.

 

[LB-V]

That should fade away after you've burnt your finger a few times.

Or I destroy an unobtainable component.

I was thinking of performing my first table surgery on the Audionics Composer....maybe I should start on something else.

 

[zdjh22]

I do quite a bit of electronics work. The Hakko FX888D soldering iron is really great (dare I say legendary), digital display and easy to change the temperature. If you are doing surface mount or solder reworking, the various cheap Chinese (I have a Yihua) solder iron + air gun combos work fine, although I had to repair mine right away from a bad internal solder connection; Yihua customer support was very helpful.

For desoldering I prefer solder wick, be sure to get a couple of rolls. The little hand vacuum desolder tools are OK, you’ll get one with the Yihua stations. A real desolder station with motorized suction is quite expensive and not needed. Did I say I prefer solder wick? A roll of fine solder (I use tin-lead solder because I am old fashioned, but you can get non-lead solder, it will just be a little harder to use).

Get a nice silicone electronics repair mat. Lots of niches for parts, stands up to the heat of resoldering.

A large magnifying glass with a built-in lamp (usually a circular lamp) on a steady platform that can be positioned and easily adjusted over your work is helpful for old eyes. Clamps of all sorts (alligator clips, mini vices, etc.).

As others have mentioned, good quality side cutters (spring loaded - also called diagonal cutters and you really don’t want to know what us old hands call them!) and needle nosed pliers. An electronics repair kit with a selection of anti-static tweezers and the plastic tools (spludgers) for separating press-fit cases. Spring loaded wire strippers. Heat shrink insulation - you’ll be amazed how often you need this, get a variety pack. Hook-up wire with a variety of insulation colors. A fine screwdriver set with all of the weird tips; I prefer the style that comes with a gazillion tips that fit into a magnetic holder.

I have a couple of ‘scopes, an old Tek that I bought used (I love analog scopes) and a Chinese portable LCD ‘scope that includes a variety of probes, runs off a battery, and includes waveform generators and a multimeter. I find push button digital scopes to be a pain compared to old fashioned analog (or pricey Tek or HP) digital scopes with actual knobs, but unless you are doing a lot of work the Chinese portables are fine. A nice DMM is handy. A selection of resistors and capacitors of common sizes (and inductors if you really get into this). For advanced work a variable DC power supply with current limit.

 

[Mackspower]

I do quite a bit of electronics work. The Hakko FX888D soldering iron is really great (dare I say legendary), digital display and easy to change the temperature. If you are doing surface mount or solder reworking, the various cheap Chinese (I have a Yihua) solder iron + air gun combos work fine, although I had to repair mine right away from a bad internal solder connection; Yihua customer support was very helpful.

For desoldering I prefer solder wick, be sure to get a couple of rolls. The little hand vacuum desolder tools are OK, you’ll get one with the Yihua stations. A real desolder station with motorized suction is quite expensive and not needed. Did I say I prefer solder wick? A roll of fine solder (I use tin-lead solder because I am old fashioned, but you can get non-lead solder, it will just be a little harder to use).

Get a nice silicone electronics repair mat. Lots of niches for parts, stands up to the heat of resoldering.

A large magnifying glass with a built-in lamp (usually a circular lamp) on a steady platform that can be positioned and easily adjusted over your work is helpful for old eyes. Clamps of all sorts (alligator clips, mini vices, etc.).

As others have mentioned, good quality side cutters (spring loaded - also called diagonal cutters and you really don’t want to know what us old hands call them!) and needle nosed pliers. An electronics repair kit with a selection of anti-static tweezers and the plastic tools (spludgers) for separating press-fit cases. Spring loaded wire strippers. Heat shrink insulation - you’ll be amazed how often you need this, get a variety pack. Hook-up wire with a variety of insulation colors. A fine screwdriver set with all of the weird tips; I prefer the style that comes with a gazillion tips that fit into a magnetic holder.

I have a couple of ‘scopes, an old Tek that I bought used (I love analog scopes) and a Chinese portable LCD ‘scope that includes a variety of probes, runs off a battery, and includes waveform generators and a multimeter. I find push button digital scopes to be a pain compared to old fashioned analog (or pricey Tek or HP) digital scopes with actual knobs, but unless you are doing a lot of work the Chinese portables are fine. A nice DMM is handy. A selection of resistors and capacitors of common sizes (and inductors if you really get into this). For advanced work a variable DC power supply with current limit.

+1 for Hakko

 

[MidiMagic]

There are several seasoned bench DIYers on this Forum who's capabilities I have a great deal of respect for.

I am starting a very simple bench...tired of relying on expensive not so good technical shops and simply want to enjoy doing it myself.

Any suggestions out there for time tested soldering equipment and / or other primary bench hand tools that can save me the hit and miss of looking from a clean slate and/or learning the hard way?

Thank you!

Time-tested may be wrong.

The EPA banned tin-lead solder and requires solders with higher melting points. This means a hotter iron.

 

[Tribby2001]

Or I destroy an unobtainable component.

I was thinking of performing my first table surgery on the Audionics Composer....maybe I should start on something else.

The first soldering lesson every technician learns is how to make a Western Union linemen's wire splice...

 

[Tribby2001]

Time-tested may be wrong.

The EPA banned tin-lead solder and requires solders with higher melting points. This means a hotter iron.

Banned? I think not. I just bought a 1 lb. roll of leaded Kester 44.
https://www.kester.com/products/product/44-flux-cored-wire

 

[LB-V]

If you are going to work on ampleflyers you need to come up with a (preferably non inductive) load resistor.
You will want something capacious so it doesn't over heat in five seconds if you are testing amps at high power.
https://www.surplussales.com/Resistors/NonInductive/Res-NonInd_list.htm

Never even thought of that! Obvious now that you've mentioned it...thank you!

 

[par4ken]

Time-tested may be wrong.

The EPA banned tin-lead solder and requires solders with higher melting points. This means a hotter iron.

The EPA banned leaded solder for use in plumbing, due to concerns of it getting into drinking water. RoHS restricts the use of lead and many other substances in electronics in Europe. RoHS like rules have been adopted by many other countries and California.

No outright ban you can still purchase leaded solder. Most electronics manufacturing today would be RoHS compliant to enable world wide sales.

https://rohsguide.com/

 

[gene_stl]

A

 

[mandrix]

I'm not in a league with these other guys, but these days I just use a small watt weller iron. I use those "magic fingers" things with two clamps and a magnifying glass for soldering wires to led's etc.
A very good light...I like the led lights with a clamp so I can clip it on my work cart and move it where I need it or take it off completely.
(I have a work cart on castors I built so I can move it out of the way when not needed)
Definitely the side cutters.
Solder wick, but I still like my old Radio Shack piece with a fine tip that heats up and a vacuum bulb on the end. Great for desoldering IC's and goes quickly.
Good quality paste flux. I keep a bottle of rosin for bigger wires as well.
I have all sizes of heat shrink up to about 22mm. If you ever need any get the 3:1 shrink ratio when possible. I don't like the glue kind for the pc wiring stuff/sleeving I do.

For speaker wire/car stuff, if I have to patch any I like the solder connectors with the heat shrink, just twist the wires together very well, slide the connecter over and heat with a heat gun. I know some don't like them but we're not talking circuit boards here.

 

[zdjh22]

Time-tested may be wrong.

The EPA banned tin-lead solder and requires solders with higher melting points. This means a hotter iron.

Since I brought up lead solder for electronics I’ll add my $0.02. OK, maybe $2.

First, thanks for bringing this up. Environmental lead contamination is a problem, and EPA and other regulations (e.g. ROHS in the EU, which also covers a number of other toxic metals) on lead-containing gasoline additives, restrictions on lead-containing paint, bans on lead pipes, lead-alloy solders, and lead-containing fluxes for plumbing for water intended for human consumption are excellent policies for human (and animal!) health. In the US many of us are well aware of the Flint, Michigan issues with lead in water pipes.

In electronics the US (except for California) doesn’t restrict lead-alloy solder use. In the EU, ROHS regulations do restrict the use, but with notable exceptions (use in computer servers and computer storage equipment, use in solar panels). Lead leaching out of old circuit boards in landfills is a problem as well as lead exposure in countries where processing of old electronics is common. It’s a tiny contributor (I saw 2% in the landfill discussion in the Wikipedia ROHS article), with other electronics such as old CRTs a much bigger issue.

Changing out capacitors for many of us involves equipment older - often much older - than the ROHS actions (around 2005?). The few items I’ve repaired that had bad caps all used lead solder on their boards. It’s fine to use non-lead solder for those repairs, and I well understand the environmental concerns, but the impact of lead-alloy solder use for repair on a non-ROHS compliant board is pretty minimal.

For a neophyte, lead-alloy soldering is just easier. Lower temps, much better wetting properties, and less brittle. You’ll particularly appreciate the lower temps if you are soldering a component whose trace connects to a large, thick, ground plane (a big heat sink). If you are going to use non-lead solder, a temperature-adjustable iron is a requirement.

 

[Tribby2001]

Just avoid inhaling leaded solder fumes.

 

[zdjh22]

Just avoid inhaling leaded solder fumes.

Definitely. Those fumes are just flux smoke, though, but they are still to be avoided. In my prior life I used to deposit thin films of various metals including lead to make superconducting tunnel junctions. I have a vapor pressure table for lead somewhere in my library, but as I recall at the low temperatures you use for soldering lead alloys there is no danger (tin-lead eutectics melt at a much lower T than either tin or lead, and I had to use higher than melting point temperatures for depositing films).

If you want even more boring stories about lead, I can tell you about the hazards of lead plating out from radon gas, or our use of ancient lead from Phoenician shipwrecks as shielding on a dark matter search experiment.

 

[Tribby2001]

Definitely. Those fumes are just flux smoke, though, but they are still to be avoided.

Oh krap, I've been soldering electronics with lead for many decades - are you saying I'm losing my mind for different reasons? [Don't answer that.]

 

[bsco]

get yourself a decent DMM $50 to $75 range would be great...a soldering Iron about 50 Watts....you can either buy a temp controlled unit or you can make your own from a regular light bulb dimmer control...that is what I did....as long as the iron is NON-INDUCTIVE...do not use a soldering gun with the dimmer.....for the same reason as you can't use a dimmer with a ceiling fan.....

a cheap oscilloscope around the $100 range should be good...there are tons of them out there.....a good set of hand tools...a capacitance meter , esr meter is also a good thing to have....or, you can get what they call a component tester for dirt cheap and that will test a number of components as well...maybe $10 to $20.....if doing smd then you will need a cheap hot air station to get you started...mine was under $100.......and watch a lot of YouTube videos....there is one guy there who has Learn Electronics Repair channel on YouTube...check that one out...he is based in the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain........he also has a video of what tools you need for a repair shop setup....and he goes into great depth.....

 

[zdjh22]

Oh krap, I've been soldering electronics with lead for many decades - are you saying I'm losing my mind for different reasons? [Don't answer that.]

You and me both. I didn’t use an air filter near a solder station for a couple of decades of electronics work. But I think all of the acetone I used for years with bare hands to clean glassware and the silica fumes from glasswork with a hydrogen flame on quartz (fused silica) were probably far worse for me.

 

[bsco]

Wow, a 50W 8Ohm load resistor for $5. That's a steal at ten times the price. Unfortunately, I tried to buy one, and they have a $25 minimum order requirement. I'll see if they have other stuff I can use.

Edit: No problem finding plenty of other stuff. They have RG6 and S-video cable.

go for a couple of 100W ones if you can afford it....if not pick up a half dozen of the 50W ones instead and wire them up for 4/8/ and 16 ohm configurations....