How To Get Started In Soldering

For soldiering, I'm still at the first stage.

The cheap small soldering "pencil" irons like they had at Radio Shack were insidiously bad because of the crummy solder that came in the package, and their crummy store brand solder.

I would use only Multicore or Kester solder. Much bigger difference than automatic temperature control.

These are small irons but they still get hotter than the ideal temperature that most long-term assemblers prefer to work at. At least the iron does, but maybe not the tip, especially if it's not screwed in really tight, or if a lot of oxidation has built up in the iron threaded socket the tip screws into. I used to grab the tip at the base with the curved jaws of a wire stripper and screw it in real tight whether hot or cold. Starting when new so no corrosion has a chance to build up.

Different tips will end up with different tip temperatures, but when you've got one of these going properly you can be just as effective as with a controlled unit.

The tips are copper with chrome plating which can be a thin layer, but when it oxidizes it gets more of a sheen rather than building up a crust like plain copper. Solder won't want to stick to the chrome too easy, and once it gets oxidized it's even worse. And the oxidized metal will not transfer heat properly to the work.

For splicing new pure copper wires using a temp-controlled iron, it is common to heat the copper joint with the tip until the solder melts and behaves like mercury as it soaks well into the joint. This often fails with antique wires since the old conductor has an oxidation layer on the strands so the solder will not wet them. Things like this are best carefully tinned individually before joining, using additional cleaning and flux if necessary.

Tinning the new tip is the first thing. Lots of users will wait until the iron heats up too much and try to apply a bit of solder after there is already a thin oxidation layer on the chrome tip. I like to get some solder on the point to wet the chrome as soon as it gets hot enough the first time, then unplug the iron and suspend the tip downward with a fraction of a gram of solder obscuring the point as it hardens. It will really dig into that substrate as it solidifies, and in operation the very tip is the part you are going to have to keep constantly wet with fresh solder, and basically use some liquid metal hanging there to transfer heat more effectively to the work than you can from contact with a non-wet tip of the same temperature. The shaft of the tip will become more and more oxidized, and if the point gets like that you might as well sand it down, most likely down to the copper.

Copper tins real easy but it dissolves in the solder much faster than the chrome so the tip will be much more sacrificial as you continue rinsing it with fresh solder when needed so only the freshest non-oxidized solder will come in contact with your work. With new tips or not, properly sized to the work, stuffing a PCB should not require more flux than there is in the core of the solder.

Unplug it when you're not actually using it, they do not really take that long to heat up when you need it again. They just sit there oxidizing otherwise.

Whatever your approach, you need to be comfortable with handling hot liquid metal to some extent.

Presuming you're not a surgeon, would you be willing to do an appendectomy on someone? It's a typical procedure that is well documented and at this point very routine for most surgeons, and with just a bit of research and practice, you can be doing all sorts of other surgeries.

Emotions AND logic prevent us from doing relatively routine/simple/safe things all the time.

I _can_ solder and do basic electronic repairs; I've done it plenty and in a pinch with enough time to research, I can probably pull it off. I rarely do however, because:

1. It's an investment in time and equipment that I may not have on hand for items that don't need frequent repairs

2. For the electronics I have, it voids the warranty, and if I screw up, then I'm on the hook for everything, so effectively there is a fine for screwing up

3. For most electronics I have around me, they are prohibitively complex and important enough to my day to day that living without them while I learn and research is quite costly

My point isn't that people are too anxious to do repairs, I have no idea how you took this interpretation. I don't trust my electrical engineering skills because I don't have them developed well, so I think it's prudent to not take on an electrical project like house wiring because I lack the experience to ensure it's done well and there is risk if it's done poorly. This isn't anxiety, it's a practical cost analysis. I don't personally need to do such repairs frequently (either by myself or with the help of a contractor), so an investment in these skills falls more under hobby than a practical skillset, and for the items that have needed repair, self-repair means then liability falls on me entirely, and if I do get in over my head, the cost for repair goes up as it's no longer covered under the repair warranty in many cases. That last point arguably is a fault of overly-broad EULAs and Terms of Use contracts, but it is the situation right now whether I like it or not.

Finally, as someone who did do electronics repair (and later programming), there are definitely issues that I was/am tasked with where someone unqualified tried their hand at it first and made what was a minor issue a major problem due to inexperience. I would have vastly preferred that the person(s) never tried to touch the issue since what they did just exacerbated the issue or introduced new issues instead of making it better.

It's a logical and reasonable cost-benefit calculation, and I can absolutely get even as a technically capable person why many GenZ wouldn't want to get into electronics on the basis of repair; it's the wrong introduction in my opinion and carries too high a cost of failure for most of electronics we use in every day life. That is why I think that a hobbyist approach, small electronics projects, etc, are a better gateway into electronics. The cost is failure is quite low (you just don't get whatever you're trying to build), the same skills for making the electronics carries over to repairs and builds the skillset and confidence for making the repairs, and it helps establish the wisdom to better assess if you can DIY or if a specialist is a better choice. All of the people I know who are big into car repair have that wisdom to know when it's better to take it to a shop that has the right equipment and experience versus what can be done at home in the garage.

Used it to get the controller out of an ebike battery yesterday :D