Getting Started with Soldering - by Marc de Vinck

Flux? Tinning? Reflow?? 

When you think of electronic engineering, soldering may be one of the first associations that come to mind. Many of our Adafruit boards are fabricated through a bulk soldering process called wave soldering or go through our Adafruit selective soldering machine. But there are several special boards that we personally hand solder additional components, like microphones or antennae. 

To give you that extra edge of confidence, Make: and Marc de Vinck came out with this nice, slim booky-book, Getting Started with Soldering - A Hands-On Guide to Making Electrical and Mechanical Connections, that includes a cool forward by our "Ladyada". With these two experts breaking the basics down for you, you'll be "cross-stitching with molten metal" in no time!

If you need a soldering iron, kit or tools, we have tons in stock for every budget

While your first couple of times soldering may feel a little intimidating, it gets much less scary as you gain experience points. Soldering is very handy (pun intended) to have in your savvy set of life skills, and the sense of accomplishment is palpable! 

Contents

• What Is Soldering?
  • Other Types of Soldering
  • The Difference Between Soldering and Welding
  • Soldering Electronics
• Basic Soldering Tools and Materials
  • So, What Soldering Iron Should You Purchase?
  • Soldering Iron Accessories
  • Getting a Grip on Your Work
  • A Summary of Tools
  • Materials
  • Project: Portable Mint Tin Fume Extractor
• Let's Get Soldering
  • Preparing Your Soldering Iron and Workstation
  • Soldering Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)
  • Trimming the Wire Leads after a Successful Soldering Connection
  • Connecting Wires or Components Without a PCB
• Troubleshooting and Fixing Mistakes
  • Common Mistakes
  • Different Ways to Remove Solder
  • Repairing Lifted Pads
• Advanced Soldering
  • Tools
  • Materials
  • How to Solder Simple Surface-Mount Devices
  • How to Solder a Multi-lead SMD
  • When Something Goes Wrong--Fixing and Removing Components