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Soldering Practice Kits
The Basic DIY Kit | Solder/De-Solder Kits | SMD Kits
You only get better at something with practice. The unfortuanate thing with DIY electronics is that you do not want to be using the playing field as a practice field. There are several ways to practice soldering, but sometimes it is nice to have a kit from which to fine tune your skills--this is especially true with SMD's where some chips may cost as much at $50. Below are a couple of kits worth considering before you build that first amp, DAC, or effects pedal.
The Basic DIY "Kit"
Here's some tips on what you can do to teach yourself how to solder properly. Practice keeping your tip clean, using rosin, and tinning the tip.
Find a piece of wood and hammer in a bunch of nails outlining a square pattern. Then wrap wire around the nails to form a grid pattern. Here's a small example of what you want it to look like.
Tin the tip of your iron and place it where the wires cross to heat up the area to be soldered. It is very important to tin your iron before soldering. This improves the heat transfer from the iron to the joint to be soldered.
Now touch the solder to where the wires cross. This whole heating and soldering process should only take about a second.
The top 2 solder joints are examples of poor soldering. The ball of solder on the right is an example of a cold solder joint. This is because the wires weren't heated up enough to allow the solder to flow into the joint. The one on the left is another example of a cold joint that also had too much solder applied. The lower two solder joints are examples of good solder joints that were properly heated prior to applying the solder and with just the right amount of solder used to make the joint.
De-Soldering / Soldering "Rework" Training Kit
Here is a great kit for a low price
Unique, inexpensive method of teaching de-soldering and soldering. Kit is designed around an assembled, power controller interface circuit board that is fully populated with components like Hitachi quad comparators and quad op amps. Approximately 50 components and hardware items, all being DIP (through hole) style. Other semis include, but are not limited to an 8-bit PIC Micro-C and some IRLZ34 N-channel Enhancement Mode Logic Level TrenchMOS transistors. In addition, there are resistors, caps, some unique style red, green and even bi-polar LED’s, switches, a buzzer, connectors, heatsink and more. Kit includes circuit board with case, instruction manual, de-soldering pump, 5 ft. desolder braid, soldering iron, 10 gm. solder, iron stand and sponge. After removing parts, “Re-Work” the board by soldering them back! Instruction manual includes technical tips on both de-soldering and soldering.
- Cost-effective method of teaching both de-soldering and soldering
- Work with an actual finished product (not a hobby) circuit board
- Beginner students can de-solder (and re-work) one section of the board at a time
- Tutorial manual with de-soldering and soldering tips
- Over 100 components on board, additional boards available
- Inherent components parts value
- Contains circuit board, de-solder pump, de-solder braid, soldering iron, solder stand and sponge and solder (10gm), tutorial manual
- Additional boards available
Below is a great kit to practice or acquire some new soldering skills. They are very fast to ship, pleasant to work with, and come with the highest recommendations. Here is the contact info:
J.B. Saunders Company
4700 Sterling Drive, Suite A
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone or fax: (303) 442-6592
Soldering Skills Practice Kit: $49.95 each or $399 for 10 kits.
Are your soldering and rework skills adequate? Instead of practicing on your valuable products, why not work with our practice kit? Develop the expertise that you need using our circuit boards and components. Each kit contains the following items:
2 Thru-hole electrolytic capacitors
1 Thru-hole 3-pin power connector
4 1-pin test points
1 2-pin header
1 5-pin header
26 Type 1206 SMT resistors
3 Type 1210 SMT resistors
10 SMT tantalum capacitors
26 Type 1206 SMT ceramic capacitors
2 SMT power transistors (Type CTP3)
1 SMT transistor (Type SOT23)
2 SOIC 8 ICs
1 SOP 14 ICs
1 SOP 16 ICs
2 SOC 16 ICs
4 SOIC 20 ICs
2 SOIC 28 ICs
1 PLCC 28 IC
1 PLCC 32 IC
1 PLCC 84 IC
1 Thru-hole 25-pin D connector
1 Printed circuit board
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