My first soldering iron was the kind that our camp counselor,
Dave Hrynkiw, recommends we never use. You know the kind, it
comes in a $10 kit and barely works. The reality is, a lot of
people find one on these irons in the bottom of their toolbox and
start their soldering careers
with it. Big mistake.
I ended up with a few burnt boards, traces that lifted, and an
overall sour taste fo...
We thought it'd be fun to poll Make: Online readers to collect some of YOUR top soldering tips. Please share your pearls of wisdom in the comments for those who may be new to the alchemical art of turning lead into electronics.
Here's one tip that's a perfect example of a "why didn't I think of that?," something really simple that can prove amazingly useful. We've posted it before, but it bears repeating. It was first posted in my Toolbox: Jigs, clamps, and helping hands">clamps and jigs Toolbox column:
Well, we've completed our first week of our MAKEcation programming, "Teach Your Family to Solder." We hope we've inspired you to take up the firesticks, grab some noxious metal on a spool, and start dripping beads of molten alloy all over sensitive electronic components. Good, clean fun for the whole family!
Win awesome booty!
If you and family members DO decide to learn soldering, document it. Take photos and/or video and send us the links. Load them onto the
We hope you and your family are having fun learning how to solder. If you are, take some pictures and load them to the MAKE Flickr pool. The first five people who load family soldering pics and tag them "MAKEcation" will get a free Maker's Notebook.
