Soldering

[Blackhawk]

I need to do a little. I have never done this thing. Specifically, I need to add some battery attachments to mid-90s circuit boards. The kids are getting an original SNES plus a stack of games for Christmas. It's an original, and the games back then used battery powered save slots. Those batteries are long since dead. I've heard that it is fairly simple to de-solder the old battery off and attach a new battery and holder to those terminals, and that the parts are cheap and readily available. I just need to learn to solder.

It wouldn't hurt to be able to fix a thingy here and there, and there have been some other times, such as in some miniatures projects, where it would have come in handy.

So, two quick questions:

This is highly rated and affordable. Is it enough? Is it what I need?

Second, any quick tips on how to get started? I've got a couple of old 56k internal modems I can practice on.

[Rip]

Lesson One

[dbt1949]

As someone who was an electronic tech for 20years and did soldering every day I, say that if you're thinking of use the solder iron to solder lead miniatures you are going to need a variable foot switch for the solder gun which is way too hot for that sort of thing.
You can get (and it's the most popular) solder with the flux built in. They also have low temp solder for working on things like lead figures.
For removing solder get a cheap solder sucker to use instead of solder wick. Does a better job and less mess.
After you do your job use something like fingernail polish remover to clean your work after words.


The kit you showed looks fine. I don't remember if I saw where the tip could be replaced. Sometimes you find a different kind of tip works better for you depending on your project. I did notice it had a solder sucker in it.


Edit: I did see it had different tips. Good.

[Archinerd]

I think that's the same soldering Iron I have. I used it to fix my garage door opener.
I have very limited soldering experience, but it was actually a really simple repair, all I had to do was reconnect one wire.
I would urge you to wear safety goggles too. Hot lead in the eye probably wouldn't feel good.

I originally bought it to make some BEAM bots but have never gotten around to it.

[hitbyambulance]

through-hole soldering is easy once you practice a bit. you'll be wondering 'what was i so afraid of before?'

careful if you're soldering wires directly to batteries.

[Default]

A 15 watt iron and some LEAD 80/20 solder is what you need. The lead-free stuff is a bitch. PM me your address and I will send you a iron and some soldering stuff. I upgraded to a soldering station and I have extra.

[Blackhawk]

I will post more after I have more of a chance to read up on what was said. Here are some quick examples of what I'll be doing though.



And this

[em2nought]

I think you need to use heat sinks to absorb the heat when soldering delicate electronics so as to not damage the components. Must be mentioned on youtube somewhere.

[dbt1949]

That's true. Usually I used a pair of needle nose pliers as a heat sync.

[EvilHomer3k]

That shouldn't be a big deal. The electronics back then were fairly large and easy to see. The kit you linked to is fine. It has a solder sucker. If you're doing more than a few I highly recommend one. The braids are okay but the sucker is faster and more reliable. There's tons of youtube videos on soldering. Some things they don't mention.

The fumes are an issue. You might want to wear a mask. Soldering gives me a bad headache because of the fumes. Some kind of mask (even a cheap one) is advised.

You need three hands. Amazon has several helping hands as add on items on that page. You'll have one hand holding the iron, one holding the solder. You need another 1-2 for the parts. You may be able to get away with it since you are mounting something but if you are trying to solder a wire to a board having the extra 'hand' is very useful.

I didn't see any flux in the kit. You'll need some (which is mentioned on the tutorial you linked to).

Overall, it shouldn't be too bad.

[Zitterbacke]

Soldering since over 40 years, from entire computers to 16' organ pipes I used basic unregulated irons mostly, just a few years ago I got a station. Probably wouldn't even do that again.
Roundabout 20W is enough for components (shielding can demand more). The set you linked looks OK, just don't set the iron to 60W unless the thing you want to solder doesn't get on temperature within, say, 2 seconds. I'd practise with a few wire cuts and try to solder a mesh. You get the feel for how much solder to apply and how to move the tip to get nice joints and no spiky "noses". Apart from that it's (IMHO) a surprisingly easy thing to learn, and saved me lots of money (computers, TV, household items, car, even jewellery-repairs to a degree). Take the suggestion about goggles serious, I wear glasses anyway, but had to scratch solder of them a few times.

[Blackhawk]

Thanks. I already have a good ventilator mask I use for airbrushing, so I'll add a set of goggles to my list.

[gameoverman]

The one thing that got stressed to me when I learned, but which I ignored then with experience realized was true, was to heat the items you are soldering, not the solder. You want the heat from the items to melt the solder and the solder, like the spice, will flow. If you try to cheat and melt the solder with the tip of the iron then it will screw everything up. The solder will melt fast and you'll get a glob on the tip of the iron, meanwhile the items won't be hot enough and so the solder won't flow correctly.