Anybody can do good work with either type of solder, but 63/37 is probably friendlier to the novice who’s trying to figure out how to keep board, component, solder and iron positioned and steady with just two hands. It should be available at most of the same places selling 60/40.

I also have to put in a plug for Radio Shack’s 45W desoldering iron: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062731 At $10-12 this thing is one of the best deals anywhere; quicker, cleaner and more controllable than inferior plunger-type solder-suckers costing about the same. The tips need to be replaced periodically, and the heat and motion can damage PCBs if you dwell too long, but it’s the most effective tool available unless you move up to a much more expensive professional vacuum desoldering station. Plus you can turn it into a hot-air soldering tool: http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/07/how-to-make-a-surface-mount-soldering-iron/ (As reported on Hackaday at one point, although I can’t find the post.)

A final note, precision tweezers and good flush diagonal cutters make a huge difference. Spend a little more now ($10 each) rather than making do with whatever you have sitting around. It’s totally worth it.

Anyone else submit ideas?

I second everything y’all mentioned, but would like to suggest a few more tools needed especially for SMT work.
- Tweezers – I’ve found the difference between $30+ and $3 tweezers to be minimal. especially when they are shared with other hackers – get extras, they “wear out” (some ME jacka** tries to tighten a bolt with them). I buy the streight and bent tip ones from digikey (i forget the manufacturer, if there is demand, I’ll look up the digikey #)
- Quality flux – the pen is good, liquid flux is better. Kester no clean or water soluble is good.
- Quality solder – kester 60/40 no clean, or water soluble – seriously, it will produce better joints.
- Flux cleaner – worth every penny for cleaning off boards.
- Isopropyl or ethyl alchohol – available at wallgreens/cvs etc – for cleaning boards, tweezers, reworked components.
- Solder sucker – not for smt work, but great for through hole
- Solder wick – getting expensive as the price of copper rises, but invaluable for smt work.
- Magnifying visor – I have a busch and lomb one I got off ebay new for $20.
- Quality flush cutters – $25 cutters are actually far far far superior to the cheap ones spend the cash, but protect them with your life!

I actually have been teaching soldering to new members of our robotics team at GT. We went from through hole to reworking RAM DIMMs.

With my setup, I can do down to 0.020 in pitch components. If there are viable leads, it can be soldered. What I am looking for is a good way to solder QFN (no leads) and BGAs. I have seen a few chinese hot air rework stations, but am unsure of their quality.

Thoughts?

-Andy

I got one for $50 after a little watching and it’s in great condition. Well worth the money.

I have also found foam drive bit holders with an adhesive back at my local hardware that are ideal for holding my assortment of tips to the side of the temp control. They were made to stick onto the side of a cordless drill.

I live and work in a marine environment where the green fuzzies live and breed. For thru-hole boards I trim the soldered leads close to the board and then go back over with the iron and a touch of solder to create a small round mound of solder – no corrosion and nice and smooth without the normal micro-meathooks.

For great control of the amount of solder I use the smallest diameter solder I can find.

For SMT components I use the small end of a chop stick to hold the little buggers in place. You may want to carve it down a bit but leave the end flat and you can rotate the part into perfect alignment especially with a slight bit of beeswax on the end.

Favorite anti-corrosion spray – Boeshield