Soldering Equipment Etc.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 9:31 pm

Hey everyone. I came around these parts a few months ago asking about LEDs for my DC, and where to buy them. Unforunately, my first attempts at modding were quite botched, and in general, a loss. It didn't help that I was using crap tools and non-electrical solder.

....Which brings me to the question at hand. What type of soldering iron etc. should I get? I've tried the generic regular old kind, and it was crap, and broke pretty fast. I'm looking for a nice, sturdy, well built iron that works well for electronic soldering. Any links/products you can point me towards?

Also, further along the lines of soldering, what else should I have for electronics soldering? I really just jumped in cold last time, and it cost me two DCs and an Xbox. I'd prefer this to not happen again, so what else should I get? I've heard rumblings of multimeter around--what do these do? Anything else?

For the record, I'm going to start over where I began: [attempting] to install a 4 wire mod-chip. But, I do plan to gradually move up to more difficult stuff, so I'd like all the necessary soldering stuff to work with.

Thanks. Hopefully one day I'll even get some *gasp* LEDs in my Dreamcast.

Steve-O · Post by **Steve-O** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 1:11 pm

I recomend this Soldering Iron..

Nice Fine Tip (0.65mm), Nice Low Wattage (12Watt) and Weller is a Top Brand

- http://www.tool-up.co.uk/shop/diy/WEL20 ... d=EKzxESZ2

Or this one. Only difference is its tip is 2mm and its 15Watt http://www.tool-up.co.uk/shop/diy/WEL20 ... d=EKzxESZ2

What Brand it is, Dont go over 16Watts and get the Finest Tip possible. For solering onto Chip legs I would recommend the top iron I mentioned with the 0.65mm tip

rmbell · Post by **rmbell** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 5:16 pm

do you know a good place to get 12w pencil irons in canada or us? I dont really want to order from uk, and my 15w is dying.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:47 pm

Ya, same here, can't order from the UK due to power differences...and I don't want to get a step down converter.

Kamjin · Post by **Kamjin** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:03 pm

rmbell wrote:do you know a good place to get 12w pencil irons in canada or us? I dont really want to order from uk, and my 15w is dying.

http://www.active-tech.ca/

Steve-o has the right idea 15 watt should stop you from burning stuff, but you could also get a weller wp25 (25watt), and buy a fine tip for it as well, this would be a more all around tool, but you'd need to be more cautious around fine traces.