Resources to Get Good at Soldering?

I understand that there's always a hesitation to invest in what looks like an expensive and large tool, but if there's one thing that I could go back in time and force myself to get years sooner, it's a stereo microscope.

It's the single largest difference between frustrated and feeling like a ninja. You will, quite simply, never regret it.

I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love...

You don't need any real educational resources to get good at soldering. Any random primer will do. It's genuinely a simple task that doesn't require a lot of explanation or have a lot of tricks.

What gets you good at soldering is just practice. Solder a lot. A fun and easy way to do this is to pick up those cheap ($5 or less) electronic solder-it-yourself kits and do a bunch of them. Include ones that contain small surface mount parts.

You can also practice desoldering on them, or pick up broken electronics and desolder parts from those.

> managed to desolder and resolder a stick but the controller doesn't turn on anymore.

There's a chance to practice repair (which is a completely different topic from soldering)! Odds are very high the problem is that you've made an unwanted solder bridge or you have a cold solder joint.

If you’re wanting to get really serious, there are certification classes. For example, the “j standard” classes are pretty detailed.

https://www.protoexpress.com/blog/ipc-j-std-001-standard-sol...

There are some open source documents that can help you understand the difference between good and not-so-good work. Eg https://nepp.nasa.gov/docuploads/06AA01BA

My suggestion is, don't start with difficult soldering jobs. Instead, start with something easy, such as a kit that's intended to teach old school electronic assembly. For instance, something like a guitar pedal. Or, solder to the relatively plump terminals of IC breakout boards before trying to solder the IC's themselves.

I learned soldering by playing around with electric guitars, amps, cables, etc.

Once you're ready to move up to more difficult things such as PCB repair and surface mount, you'll have acquired the basic skills and knack.

At the basic level, all you need is a soldering iron, some solder, and basic hand tools that you already have if you're into tinkering. The rest of the stuff can come later as needed.

Don't overlook taking a community college course. You'll have access to the latest equipment without having to own it.

Look for professional or IPC training videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/b15MMzb_GWw )

Like all practical skills, practice!

Soldering new is easier than repair.

Get some dirt cheap ali express electronic kits and solder them up. Or get a load of components and some strip boards. Lead solder is much easier to use.

Basic antex iron. Stand with sponge...dab of solder on the iron, wipe on sponge, push iron against both board and component, feed in solder, admire.

For repair work, you want scrap boards real boards. Desolder all of the components, put them back.

Practice. Buy the fancier stuff once you know why it might be useful.

If you are going to do much soldering you need some kind of extractor. Flux in solder will cause breathing problems fairly quickly.

Honestly, just practice with a thing that does not cost a lot of money.

Once you desolder and resolder a full size keyboard multiple times (this is before hot-swap was available), most normal through hole PCB soldering jobs becomes easy.

300C on my TS100 for 63/37 lead (from a cheap brand) for any solder in the past 10 years. No extra flux, clamps or anything, just a wet sponge and an open window (or soldering outside), it sounds very basic but once you know how to solder you can do it anywhere.

For desoldering, a good solder pump will do. If a joint is hard to desolder, add solder and pump it again. You can use solder wick to clean up the hole, or you can just pump it again.

Sure, once you have an actual paying job with disposable income you can get all the nice tools, solder, and all that jazz, but it does not make you better, it just makes it easier.

Though saying that, a Hakko desoldering gun is well worth it - I am still good at using a pump and solder wick, but what a time saver the Hakko is.

I have bought some spare Kester leaded spools in case it gets banned for average the consumer, but nowadays I use lead-free SAC305 solder. It's safer clean-up, the only downside is that it does not look as cool. Also, definitely use an extractor fan for lead-free, the fumes are from lead-free are meant to be way more toxic than leaded - I get a headache from some whiffs compared to many more from leaded soldering (obviously try not to inhale any in the first place!).