Solder, solder iron, solder wick etc recommendations?

fart_toast · 07 Dec 2013, 21:58

Hi guys,

i'm going to be taking one of my ducky shine 2's (or an ISO UK poker 2, it's undecided) apart and swapping the brown switches to white switches. At the same time I may as well have a mess around with varied LED colours across the board as I think I have to unsolder them anyway to remove the switches.

I am in the UK and have a £100 Amazon voucher.

Could the experts recommend me a good soldering iron, solder, solder wick and solder sucker from amazon.uk please?

I do have solder and a soldering iron but it's a cheap crappy one. I've invested the money in upgrades for my keyboard and it'd be a shame to ruin it with shoddy equipment!

TLDR: recommend me soldering gear please.

nathanscribe · 07 Dec 2013, 23:01

I make do with a fairly crappy cheapo Antex iron at the moment, but I can certainly recommend some solder wick - Soldamop comes on reels of various lengths and widths. Get some of that and don't look at the cheaper stuff. Personally I don't like solder pumps, I find them unwieldy. I'm faster with wick. I'd get some Soldamop No-Clean.

Also, I haven't bothered moving on to unleaded solder. I don't make stuff commercially so it's not necessary from that point of view. I'm not sure on the compatibility of leaded & unleaded on the same spot, and commercial products now should be lead-free. Someone else can help with that I've no doubt.

As for other stuff you might want, make sure you get either an iron with a stand, or buy a stand for it. A sturdy one. You don't want it to fall. Also, it might sound daft, but get yourself some little tubs or something for putting parts in. It is *very* easy to lose tiny bits and spend several minutes swearing while you fail to locate them. I'd also recommend one of those 'helping hands' things with clips on arms on a base. I took the magnifier off mine, didn't like it. Also look at the different tips for your chosen iron. For little electronic pieces you won't be wanting something with a big end, a fine chisel is fairly handy I find.

Broadmonkey · 07 Dec 2013, 23:07

I created a similar thread some time ago, you might find some useful info there:
http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=4900

fart_toast · 07 Dec 2013, 23:32

thanks guys

fart_toast · 08 Dec 2013, 00:11