I agree.

I don't personally think it's necessary to go up to €150, but a low-quality entry-level soldering iron will cause a lot of problems, and you'll be blaming yourself for the lack of progress. I learned on a crappy one and always thought I sucked. On university I used one that was alright and it was night and day.

It is important that the soldering iron provides the correct amount of heat, and with entry-level irons it's always a gamble, in my experience.

On the other hand, spending the €150 from the start will save you a lot of time testing irons.

Those $130-$150 Aixun branded JBC clones on aliexpress make a compelling argument for the price point IMO.

You can start with a little DIY $40 JBC handle + C245 tip + panel controller, add $20 24V/8AA supply and you are good to go.

I 100% agree.

They say "a good craftsman doesn't blame his tools" but when you start out you need good tools.

A non-temperature-controlled soldering iron is a huge impediment to learning because the temperature varies with usage and so its behavior is hard to predict for a new solderer.

Even between temperature-controlled ones there can be a large difference in ability to conduct heat into a part: my Pinecil takes far longer than my Weller (I recommend the WE1010) to heat a joint to the point where solder will melt. (the Pinecil is still nice to have as a mobile soldering setup)

More heating duration results in more part damage: overheated ICs and traces popping off the PCB.

> They say "a good craftsman doesn't blame his tools" but when you start out you need good tools.

Yeah, it's important to realize that saying applied to good craftsmen, not novice craftsmen.

And intentionally choosing not to blame your tools doesn't transform you into a good craftsman, either.

I'm a pretty good craftsman, and if the angle grinder I'm working needs to be held 'just so' to keep it running, weighs twice what my other ones do, and reeks of ozone - I have absolutely no problem saying 'screw this thing' and throwing in the trash.

never understood that aphorism

I think people take it to mean "A good craftsman should be able to make excellent work even with poor tools"

But maybe it means "a good craftsman should have the experience to know not to work with poor tools, and if they do work with poor tools and the outcome is bad, it's their own fault for not finding better tools, not the tools fault for being poor"

As in, don't blame your tools, you're the one who chose them. And you're always free to choose better tools.

Don't blame tools, but it's okay to blame tool shaped objects.

Kinda of like the old Chris Berman commercial, "There's no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people asking questions."

In this case of soldering I agree, as the tool really does make it easier. Generally for most hobbies I tell people to buy the "cheapest" they can find and if they use it until it breaks then buy the most expensive one you can afford.

I think this might work for some subset of hobbies (can't think of any), but anything that requires some learning or training to improve, crappy tools will hold your progress back and might cause you to drop out. From ping pong balls to guitars...

For working on cars, the standard advice is to buy a basic wrench and socket set from harbour freight, any specialty (non electrical) tools from there as you need them, and then upgrade the few things that end up not being adequate.

It's kind of interesting how handling this well varies from hobby to hobby and is tricky to balance from person to person. There's the argument that you don't want to spend too much until you get a feel for how interested you are but there's also the effect of quality of tools on enjoyment/annoyance/learning curve that has a big effect on interest a lot of the time. I guess, you're always just gonna wanna google around to get a better idea, but sometimes there's not great googleable info.

this is fantastic advice for creative outlets, cottage crafts, and low-impact outdoor activities. but it's dangerous in hobbies like soldering or sports, where tools can seriously impact the safety of the operator, or render the operator's work dysfunctional

There are pretty good cheap soldering irons these days too. My $35 Pinecil is pretty fun to use.

Seconded. I have two Weller TCPs and a while ago decided to buy the Pinecil just as a way to support the folks at Pine64. Well, it turned out it's a really good iron, and I use it along the Wellers without noticing any difference.

Similar story: went from a series of bad cheap irons to a good cheap iron and it was like night and day.

I still struggle occasionally, but that's when connecting enameled copper to 1.27 mm crenellated edge connectors, and in my book that's a task where "struggling" isn't actually that bad.

I've had a $100 Weller and a $25 Yihua soldering station and found them pretty comparable to each-other.

What's most important is that you get an electronics soldering _station_ of some type and not a basic plumbing/electricians iron that is just a pen on a cord. Those are extremely frustrating for working on a PCB.

Yeah. I went from various cheap irons to an equally cheap Yihua station, and it's such a quality of life improvement. You don't have to try to fight a too-short cord that's about to pop out of the socket, and the station is a good place to stick a durable rest for the iron that's much heavier than the stupid little stands they sell with pencil irons.

Agreed, the Pinecil is amazing. Get it as your first (and probably only) soldering iron.

Adding to the chorus - I spent $100 on a Hakko in my 30s and upon using it, immediately felt a sizable pang of regret at how much time I'd wasted with my $20 iron over the years. It felt like I must have been doing something wrong, but as soon as I had a decent iron, it's like all the videos I'd watched suddenly made sense.

Yep, ditto, except my realization came from a JBC encounter at work. I had to learn this meta lesson several times the hard way, because media portrayals lie and I had nobody to tell me different.

    Learn Good Tools -> Learn Bad Tools

is easy

    Learn Bad Tools -> Learn Good Tools

is hard. Learning has nonlinear difficulty in the number of variables and bad tools introduce distraction variables. Unless you literally can't afford the good tools, "survey professionals and then buy once cry once" is almost always the right approach.

As always, it depends. If I bought the best (or even pretty good) model tool for every hobby I start, I'd be broke. Not every tool needs to be the best.

Same. When I started to take my hobby seriously I was basically replacing a "cheap" soldering iron every couple of months and tips would have lasted me a couple of week.

When I done the maths, it has become quite expensive.

So that's when I decided to buy a Hakko FX-951 and I couldn't have been happier. It makes a huge difference between the cheap ones.

It's been working well for over 3 years now, no issues. Just make sure to use original tips. I had some knock offs and some have burned off the same day I started using them. Original tips last ages.

Don't get me wrong - the cheap ones will work and are great if you need to solder something from time to time. But if you plan to do some serious amount of soldering, don't bother with cheap tools.

I'd say there's a world of difference between a $20 cheap iron and a $50 adjustable temperature station, but once I got to the $50 level I find I can do everything I need to do (including SMD).

Same here, had a cheapo soldering iron thinking I didn't need much to start, fucked up quite a few outboards I needed to add header pins to. Bought a digital Weller iron and never had a hiccup with my soldering since then.

I spent more destroying parts than I would have just buying the Weller in the first place, lesson learned.

I got lucky and bought a $100 Hakko in... maybe my 3rd year of EE? Early 20s? Like you say, my ability to solder improved dramatically overnight. The first time I went over to my (now) wife's house, I saw she had the same iron sitting on her dining room table for some cables she was fixing. Her and I still have the same pair of irons, they still work flawlessly. We've replaced tips a number of times, but I don't think either of us have ever had to replace the ceramic heater inside. I'm turning 40 this year.

yeah $4 crap to $35 Hakko is night and day.

No such thing as $35 Hakko. There are crap $35 Hakko clones, they are BAD. Anything that uses 900 series tip is bad and should be avoided. Cheapest T12 cartridge heater/tip combo DIY kits start at ~$40 on ebay/aliexpress, thats a bare minimum good soldering iron experience. Step above are JBC C245 DIY kits, ~$40 + $20 24V/8A supply and +$10 each for additional tips, you want at least IS and K. no DIY normal station JBC clones start at $200 for something like SUGON T21.

I have this https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Hakko-temperature-limiting-sol...

oh man :( "temperature limiting" means there is a triac light dimmer in there to control power output. I havent even considered soldering irons that arent a proper temperature controlled station.

yeah maybe that's why it's cheapest adjustable product, but not very accurate temperature isn't much matter for hobby.

Similar story, I went from a $20 no-name iron to a Hakko FX unit and it's night and day.

Same, but I'll name drop: it was from a shitty Radio Shack pencil iron to the HAKKO.

They did a poor job of qualifying "cheap". They link to a $50 Harbor Freight unit, which is a proper temperature controlled soldering station. It should certainly be made clear that a $20 wand with no temp control is right out.

Agreed. A cheap 40 watt soldering iron is really meant for touching up plumbing. And a cheap 10 watt one will cool down too quickly.

Electronics are heat sensitive. A reliable solder joint needs to heat quickly, flux stripping off any oxidized layers, everything melted, before the heat goes up the lead and fries the component.

This means you want an iron that is temperature controlled, and heavy enough it has some thermal mass so it doesn't cool quickly.

I've worked with cheap irons after getting used to my $60 temperature controlled iron, and yes you can use them, but it requires more experience, skill and care to do well, which in practice is equivalent to saying less reliable results.

What people don’t understand is that Hakko and Weller ARE the low end units. The good units are made by JBC, Pace, and Metcal.

You could say they are medium range units (especially since the models usually recommended are not the very lowest end models of those brands), but the gap between a cheapo from the hardware store and a Hakko is like 10x bigger than the gap from Hakko to the highest end model for a professional PCB assembler. Incidentally I work in aerospace and I rarely see anything in lab besides Hakko 800 series, 900 series, or 200 series (rework station).

Hakko is not exclusively low end. They’re used in plenty of manufacturing plants. They’re not selling their $30k rework systems to hobbyists.

Hakko is also resting on their laurels.

Hakko is what everyone recommends but I have no idea why. It's awful stuff with a design from the 80s. The UI is awful and inscrutable without the manual, the tech is long obsolete.

Get a TS80 or something else that's actually modern -- it has excellent temperature control with a tightly integrated thermocouple like one of the expensive Hakkos (FX951), but costs less and actually displays stuff in readable English. It also has nice features like using an accelerometer to sense its own orientation and turn itself off if you leave it lying around, instead of burning a hole through your desk.

Every company besides the chinese companies like Pine, Miniware have the same stratification of soldering equipment.

Hakko 888 is cheap, and has old style carts. Weller has a similar offering. For the $300-range you get the 'proper' thermocouple-integrated tips like the FX951, and Weller likewise has a similar offering. JBC is a premium brand so they don't have low-end stuff, but their pricing isn't too far out of that range ($500ish?).

I agree the Hakko 888 is an outdated recommendation, but it's not really like their company strategy is just outdated. They're business-first, which desires having a full soldering station... not a portable thing like the Miniware/Pine stuff.

What I mean is that the FX951 is a bad offering in modern times. I mean, a 7 segment display and looking up codes in a manual in 2023? Come on! A proper display is a tiny fraction of the cost of any Hakko product, and would be far more pleasant to use.

They're just resting on their laurels. There's cheaper and less known brands that make far better products because they take advantage of things like decent micro-controllers, displays and accelerometers that have existed for decades now.

yeah my god. These Chinese soldering stations that can accept JBC cartridges are _absolutely_ the way to go these days. The TS80 is not particularly ergonomic, but the thermal regulation and variety of tips just absolutely eclipse the 888 at a fraction of the cost. I see these units from SUGON and JABE which have the separate base station and JBC-like handpiece. Those seem like the ticket.

The new wellers are very good. I have a weller WE101, a Weller Curie-point iron from the mid 2000s and a Metcal 5200. I also have a Metcal rework station at work which was actually cheap for a metcal rework station at just under $10K. The rework station came with almost all of the screws rattling around the preheater and the heating profile menu is so convoluted its barely usable. The new 5200 I have spontaneously goes into a calibration menu that I cant find documentation on. The older metcals we have a re more rugged although the older 500 series doesn't actually turn off the main power supply when you flip the on/off switch to "off" (look at the schematic online if you don't believe me) only the regulators turn off. The WE101 is rock solid although most people that solder alot don't use temperature adjustment, but I keep it around in case I ever do need it.

Point is, any weirdness with the metcals are made up for with their selection of tips and the heating speed even when soldering components to chassis' or ground planes.

If you can find a used metcal, even if its not working, you can fix them up easily and they are worth the $200 bucks even for a broken one on Ebay.

I 100% agree, the iron linked in the article is actually OK, but overpriced for what it is. The problem is that if you take the advice as written and go to Home Depot, you will end up with a frustrating piece of garbage and give up the hobby before long.

But fortunately today there are great, cheap tools. The $35 pinecil and T12 clones (as little as $25 if you can wait on shipping) are as good as $150 units from 10 years ago. I have a Hakko 888 and I haven't used it in years because a pinecil in my desk drawer is so much more convenient. It has enough juice for almost anything you'd find linked on hackernews or hackaday, and when I want to use it I just move a usb-c charging cable from my laptop to it for a while.

I'm very happy with the Pinecil. The $25 price is very reasonable for a reliable soldering iron that is open hardware[1] and runs on upgradable free and open source firmware.[2]

[1] Schematics: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil:_How_to_Repair#Schemati...

[2] IronOS: https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS

I wish I'd known this years ago. When I was about 16, I tried my hand at soldering. I had little idea of what I was doing but really tried for several weeks. Nothing worked. I thought all this time it was just me.

I mean, it could just be me, but I haven't picked up a soldering iron for many years because of that experience. I might invest good iron and give it a shot again.

You ought to. A HAKKO (and decent, thin solder) made all the difference in the world when I started back into the hobby.

Agreed. Now that the Pinecil exists, the logic of using anything cheaper/worse is absolutely daft. It's $25, there's no excuse for the open-loop garbage anymore.

Same here. I failed at soldering with my cheap iron, and there was nobody to show me what was going wrong. When I got a job assembling circuit boards, they provided a Weller, and suddenly I was able to make perfect joints every time.

Yes, "too cheap" is bad for newbies. You need something at least average or you'll struggle progressing.

Same thing happened when I learned bass. I was unable to achieve anything after 2 years on a shovel. I then tried a squier special edition.. suddenly everything was getting out. Still a newb but the tool gave me direction on where to work to improve with a lot less effort. I was shocked.

> Same thing happened when I learned bass.

I didn't enjoy playing until I swapped out the strings on my Ibanez with some Rotosounds. The tonal change was significant.

Heh, my "shovel" was an ibanez sr400 (not the cheapest, maybe 2nd low cost entry) but I have no idea what strings were on. Ibanez thin neck felt like a win at first but it wasn't enough it seems.

I’ve been steering parents on this for years: for beginners (especially kids) the difference between a lifetime passion and another hobby on the pile is usually down to the quality of the instrument + the ability to have early wins (and it’s almost impossible to have early wins on a poorly-made instrument)

Quite true. Once again, balance is key.

Yes it’s complete bullshit.

You don’t have to go crazy. I have had good results with cheaper temperature controlled units (basically Chinese knockoffs). Weller is good though and worth it.

I have a Hakko which is probably overkill for most but no one is taking that one.

I agree, but it makes sense to qualify what features of "good" tools are important for beginners. Temperature control is very important, and you should probably have one even in your first soldering iron. Something like hot air rework, on the other hand, is an advanced feature that you can defer until later.

Another not overly expensive tool I wish I'd known about as a beginner is a heated solder vacuum pump, dispensing with the need to juggle soldering iron and a non-heated vacuum.

> heated solder vacuum pump

Huh, I had no idea those were even a thing! Thanks for the recommendation.

You should also look into low melting point soldering alloys, for desoldering work.

Hard Agree. Plus, generalize this to all tasks and sports.

Bad equipment will give you bad habits right from the start. This does not mean that you should buy the top equipment to begin at anything, but it does mean that you should find out from some knowledgeable people what is the minimum you need so you won't be unnecessarily fighting the equipment and learning bad habits (basically hacky workarounds to the equipment's flaws) that you'll later struggle to unlearn.

For some sports or tasks, it's just solid mid-grade equipment, sometimes it's the lower end of the top-grade stuff.

Also, even if funds do not limit you, don't start out with the absolute top-level gear. Better to get a solid start, then grow until your skills let you see which aspects of your mid-grade gear start limiting you, then use that info to buy the top level gear that is actually best suited for you.

There's an exception, IMO, for safety critical items in sports.

I've seen so many people show up at climbing walls with cheap carabiners from amazon/etc that aren't rated for climbing, but when you view the listing all the images show climbing.

OMG YES! I wasn't thinking of that aspect.

Absolutely, for safety gear, get only top notch equipment!!!

Safety gear turns many incidents from something like notifying your family or waking up wondering "why can't I remember or see anything" to something like "damn, that's a huge dent in that helmet" or "so much for those goggles".

I've heard participating in a number of sports:

"If you only have a $10 head, then sure, get a $10 helmet ..."

. . . Indeed, I would NEVER buy any safety-related gear from Amazon or AliBaba. I know too much about Chinese manufacturing, focused entirely on profit, and quality is literally a foreign concept to them. , and that doesn't even start to mention the scams, where they not only illustrate climbing, but falsely claim ratings. I work in carbon fiber design & fabrication, and will never even buy a bicycle made in China, even from a top US company.

Just don't do it. Saving a few dozen or hundred dollars or euro is not worth the extra risk.

With helmets, I won't even buy them online - because I can't fit check them, and reputable retailers won't take returns of helmets.

Its cheaper to buy a helmet online, but it is generally better to pay the extra 10-15% and try the fucking thing on in a shop, ensure it fits, etc.

Some manufacturers (Mammut, for example) only really offer one or two sizes, others offer a variety.

Its the rule supposedly came up with by Adam Savage - buy cheap tools, use em til you break em, then replace the ones you break with expensive, good tools.

The idea of that rule is so new makers can work out what tools they actually are using, so they don't waste a shitload of money.

In practice? Some tools are just worth spending the money on upfront, inferior tools will often lead to frustration and failure early on.

The problem is people think Adams rule just applies everywhere, because he is famous etc.

I actually have a draft blog post on this exact topic that I'm not finished, with examples from my own experiences.

I also think he's talking about tools where inferior means build quality vs. performance. You can go buy a bunch of cheap wrenches from Harbor Freight and they'll be just fine compared to Snap-On.

> Quality is an issue, true. But for beginning makers there is often no cheaper alternative. Back in the day I’d “test buy” a tool from HFT and then if it was useful I’d invest in a more substantial version. Also browsing their aisles is a singular pleasure. https://twitter.com/donttrythis/status/941149124497305600

Also worth noting that often the best approach to take is that the tool itself is a consumable. $19 Harbor Freight grinders won't last as long as $150+ ones, but the ~7 you can buy for the same price will outlast even the most expensive one several times over!

Assuming you place no value on your own time & frustration…

FWIW, I learned this approach while working in the trades as a welder. You have consumables in stock and ready to go, and that includes extra grinders. Some tools you do take the time and effort to really take care of, of course, but a lot more than you might think are in the cattle not pet category of things.

Similar for professional kitchens. They use cheap pots, pans, knives, etc. then replace them when needed. No special Damascus steel knives and copper ply pans, just functional cost effective easy to replace stuff.

...all the professional kitchens I've seen use very nice professional kitchen equipment. They don't use damascus steel knives because that doesn't offer any advantage in function, but they aren't using cheap anything. Pots, pans, and knives work for a very long time and it doesn't make sense spending little to not get good ones. You can't get heavy guage stainless pots and pans for cheap, ply or no ply. The knives are the most used tool in food prep - they spend money on quality steel and good ergonomics so they dont have to work harder than they need to. In some places people bring their own knives.

When you sharpen a knife several times a day it’s going to wear out fast, even if it’s expensive. Pots and pans get bashed about and dropped, which damages even expensive pans.

Maybe it’s different in the UK but we never used fancy knives or cookware in the kitchens I’ve worked.

thats why you use quality knives that need sharpening less often. You still sharpen them because that makes the work take less time and effort. They're not fancy they're just high end. They're not damascus steel because that doesn't offer any actual advantages. Thats why you can get a shitty henkels knife for $50 anywhere you look, but the actual zwilling pro chef's knife is 3x the price - because you don't need to sharpen it as often - it keeps the edge for longer.

It's not a question of fancy. Regular looking pans and pots made from ultra thick gauge stainless steel dont look fancy, but they survive being dropped on the ground without issue.

You have a big miscomprehension if you think expensive = fancy. Not fancy, rather ultra utilitarian but high quality.

I'm trying to learn welding/metal working so I can combine it with woodworking for furniture making. Meaning I know shit about tools compared to a professional.

But I've bought two grinders and have an ancient cheap one from father in-law. My cheap Metabo is relatively quiet and smooth. Cheap Lidl one is loud and jerky. Ancient one I've just thrown away at how bad it was to use. Recently I had to grind some tubing for > hour and my wrists felt it even with the Metabo entry level. Supposedly the pro versions have antivibration, better balanced, speed control, etc.

My point being if I was using this 5 days a week for >1h I'd invest in ease of use/comfort/safety - no ? I'd probably have a few throwaway ones for backup.

My suggestions-

First, buy a separate handle that you like the feel of. They're dirt simple to swap around between tools. If you're in a large shop, make sure it stays in your lockbox overnight so that it doesn't grow feet.

Second, although honestly more important, make sure you are using the right wheel for the job, with the right pressure (lighter than almost everything thinks), and stay focused on using either the edge or the face, depending on type. This will keep things smoother, slow disc changes, and improve safety by reducing the risk of disc shatter. Detailed explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n0TSF1i5os&t=162s

Hope that helps.

[edit]- When it comes to welding, I strongly recommend learning stick first, even before MIG. It gives you much better practice learning how to control the puddle without spewing metal everywhere. Bonus points in that it is also very inexpensive, and the welds themselves are usually stronger than MIG. Only disadvantage is speed, but for the types of projects you mentioned, that's not much of an issue. This guy's channel is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMtqDWUpJds

Bad tools or consumables break at the most inopportune times and yes, in most cases bad = cheap. People like to compare to Snap-On but forget that Snap-On subsidizes their delivery service with the tool cost. Also, yes, Snap-Ons are in fact that much better than HF tools in almost all cases.

Its bad when a $9 HF torque wrench breaks at 8:45PM on a Sunday night when you're under your car putting the transmission back on. Or a cheap pot-metal screw strips when you have a manufacturing deadline approaching.

I've been in the electronics manufacturing industry for 17 years now and in almost all cases, "buy the best you can afford" is the better mantra. That doesn't go bankrupt over a $1500 dollar Snap-On wrench set, but if you buy the HF stuff, you will spend $1500 in time using their warranty.

I think your torque wrench example gets to the point of what I was trying to get at. My torque wrenches are Matco, as are my 'good' sockets. And I have a nice set of Mitutoyo calipers in my box for when I need the precision.

But for an awful lot of the regular work, it's Harbor Freight magnets, HF welding blankets and soapstone, HF clamps, HF grinders. You learn what works best for your dollar, and very often, it's erring not on the side of the more expensive stuff.

I have a bunch of my grandpa's professional tools from the '30s-'60s. Other than a motor failing in his electric drill, I've never had problems.

I've had a number of soldering irons over the decades and some of them have been the bare-bones kind. I have needed to make the most of whatever was available.

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.

Yeah, the context is important.

Unfortunately the context went missing as soon as the "rule" started making it around hacker/maker internet.

>You can go buy a bunch of cheap wrenches from Harbor Freight and they'll be just fine compared to Snap-On.

Harbor Freight wrenches are actually really good, and an excellent value for the money. I've even met pro mechanics that used them.

Harbor Freight power tools are a different deal though.

FWIW, Harbor Freight has only relatively recently made a concerted effort to start selling higher quality stuff and to shirk the "only sells cheap junk" label. And even now, there's a lot of variance (in both price and quality) across their various brands. The Icon stuff is pretty good. Maybe not quite on par with Snap-On, but when you consider the price difference, probably a better "bang for your buck." But the Pittsburgh stuff is a few steps down the quality ladder. Some of the other newer brands they've rolled out (Quinn, etc.) I'm less sure about.

They came out with decent slip jaw pliers that were almost as expensive as real channel locks for about the same quality. At that point, the question becomes "do I trust a new brand?" instead of "do I buy lower quality?"

The article writer talks about his harbor freight iron. Harbor freight is the perfect place to buy a first <insert tool> to see if youre gonna use it enough to justify a higher quality version of said tool. What isn’t all that good of a place to get a first tool is amazon, because its either cheap chinese crap or potentially counterfeit crap.

I disagree, but in the absence of shop-class and summer factory jobs, then yes.

>In practice? Some tools are just worth spending the money on upfront, inferior tools will often lead to frustration and failure early on.

no, you can't undermine the idea with this trick. For example (grabbing examples from other comments in this thread), while an expensive soldering iron might be much better than a cheap one, there is no way you know before you start whether you're going to be soldering a lot.

I know how to solder, I've soldered a lot since I was about 13, and I can solder just fine with a crappy soldering iron (just like good pizza makers can use a primitive wood fired oven) but after I learned to wire-wrap, I put down my soldering iron almost for good... and does wire-wrapping even exist any more? If I wanted to take it up again, I'd find antique wirewrapping tools before I'd torture myself with soldering anything. All of which is my way to say, if I can't predict how much soldering I'm going to do, then no beginner can predict whether an expensive soldering iron is what they need or not.

Maybe if you went out and geared up with the most expensive technical mountain climbing gear, you could climb Everest on your first try, and you could then make the case that had you bought the cheap stuff you would have been discouraged by frostbite. But that's just not a good plan.

There is a vast difference between "went out and geared up with the most expensive" and "spend ~$30 more to go from cheap crap to something baseline competent" (e.g. while the article author says "ultra-cheap" about his linked choice, it's actually more in that range). And nowadays its quite easy to figure out if that's the case for what you are planning to buy, as long as it is a somewhat mainstream topic. And then make a somewhat informed choice.

Irons are also not really getting used up, so if you truly follow the "replace if it breaks" rule you're potentially using crap a loooong time.

I know so many people who get frustrated with hobby tools and then quit the hobby, when if they would've bought something decent to start off with, might've kept interest. The price differential is a lot less if you buy used, but quality tooling. This tooling is fully depreciated, and you can turn around and sell it for what you paid for it as long as it's still in working order.

To bring it around to programming, imagine trying to debug code in GEdit+Terminal vs having the latest and greatest Jetbrains IDE to help out (ignoring the fact that the community editions are actually pretty functional - let's time travel back 20 years when you had to pay for VS or Borland). One is way more frustrating than the other; one is way more likely to lose motivation.

Or soldering - avoid the cheapest harbor freight iron, and EBay a used Weller for $50+shipping. If you never solder again pass it on and you're out the shipping costs. Weller irons have been and always will be around $50~$60 used.

far far more people quit hobbies period, and all those people would have wasted a lot of money gearing up.

The problem with wire-wrapping is that it’s so far from standard practice now (because of the migration to mostly SMD) that it’s not going to be near as easy to prototype with wire-wrapping exclusively as it used to be, and won’t even be easy to find the square-post sockets as when it was a common means of prototyping.

> does wire-wrapping even exist any more?

Yes! I gave it a try a few years ago and I am impressed.

It's faster, denser, and cleaner than soldering wires onto perfboard. Being able to rework by just unwinding a wire is great. I don't use proper wirewrap sockets, but it seems reliable for one-off hobby prototypes.

I'd say the truth lies somewhere down the middle.

Get run-of-the-mill tools if you're starting out on something new. Not too cheap because you'll be miserable, but not too expensive because you can't appreciate them.

Once you start doing whatever it is you started doing, if you end up using a tool only once every blue moon, you didn't waste money on a tool you won't appreciate. If you end up using a tool all day and feel annoyed by its limitations, you've learned what aspects to appreciate in that line of tools and you are now better informed to make your next real purchase.

Yeah, I generally agree with that rule, but a crap soldering iron is super frustrating and makes you think you suck at soldering.

It’s also great advice for people starting things because most people don’t follow through. There’s a survivorship bias in seeing it as bad advice, I think. Those who stick with a new hobby wish they had bought the good tools to begin with.

I think it’s a good thing to be able to comfortably try out lots of new things. Spending money can make you feel bound to the hobby that you might not enjoy after all.

I've had a relevant experience with ergonomic chairs. If you buy the cheap chair, it's hard to be sure. Maybe spending more will fix the problem. The expensive chair though... if that doesn't do it then you can be sure that what you actually needed was weights and a yoga mat.

I'm glad I jumped straight to the expensive one, because otherwise I'd have gotten the middle one and then the expensive one.

I think it is an older saying but I don't know who said it first. The version I heard was from scientist and the rule is to first buy the cheapest tool that does the job, then when you need something better, buy the best that you can afford.

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

I have to agree, when I was 7 or 8 I started out with a "pen" and it sucked, I got a WE-WHS40 for my 10 year birthday, now I'm 37, and.. I'm still using that one.. The transformer inside broke lose after I dropped it.. but.. for everything small-ish, it's whate I still use to this day.. I have a butane powered cheap chinese iron (that will eat away at the tip at each use, and leak itself empty within a week from filling it) for heavier connections.. Those two together cover everything I do.

One thing though.. I disagree with wet sponge, they're annoying and flimsy.. A brass sponge is so much nicer in my opinion.

Definitely skip the hardware store soldering irons, but that doesn't mean you have to spend a ton. I got a knockoff Hakko 936 for like $20 and I have no complaints.

As much as I love metcals, we had a $100 Aoyue hot-air station in graduate school that probably soldered on 500+ custom ASICs over its lifespan. The thing with prototyping chips (as with anything else) is you don't want to insert a variable (bad solder joints) into something that might have other unknown variables (the chip). The $100 hot air station broke somewhere around chip #400 and we just kept cobbling it back together. I think its still working to this day.

I love the $1400+ solder station I use at work. If I could have one at home, I totally would. Solder tweezers and a heated solder vacuum are very useful.

But I am pretty handy with the $130 Hakko I got from adafruit back when I got one for home use. I soldered for a long time with a cheapy $40 Weller I got off of amazon, although I won't go back to it any time soon. Getting a brass sponge and tip tinner really made that thing viable as a daily driver though.

I think that's the difference he was trying to illustrate: if you can't do a basic through-hole board with a 40W pen-style iron from the hardware store, it ain't the tool.

What brand is your station at work?

It's a Weller.

I used to work at a place that had the Weller WXR3003N. $3360 of pure joy. The one I work with now is a Weller WX2021N, which Newark has for $1400.

The tool quality on either is phenomenal, but definitely not necessary for learning on.

Some control over temperature, peak temperature hot enough to melt lead-free solder are really all you need to learn with. I don't want to be a neo-luddite, but you end up learning a lot of tricks with a sub-par iron that I rarely have to use with the high-end tool, but I'm glad I know. For instance, its rare with the high-end tools that I have to glob a bunch of solder onto a joint during rework, but I had to do that all the time with the cheap tool. But now, if I just can't get a joint hot enough to melt, I know that that is an option.

Cheap isn't bad in this case because of the iron: it gets hot and melts solder. Many people including myself learned on $10 radio shack irons.

What people like adam savage are overlooking in their explanation is details, in this case, cheap irons dont have the selection of tips you need. To most people "cheap soldering iron" is what you get at home depot now which has a tip the width of a pencil, hardly suitable for component soldering.

Also, here is another tip, adjustable temperature is not needed, its a useless feature. You want to get heat into a component and off. You'll fry a component more quickly if you heat it up a million times at a lower temperature setting trying to solder that pulldown resistor to the huge ground plane. In the end, your temperature setting will always be at maximum and you'll just need to hit it quick with the iron: on and off.

Along those lines, a the perfect iron has no temperature setting but can sink alot of heat into a component. Metcals are 40W or 80W in power and are used extensively to solder 0402 and below. The tips come in different heat settings but are really meant for leaded vs. non-leaded solder which flow at different temps. Overkill? no, again, get the heat in, flow the solder and off as quick as possible even when you are soldering to a plane.

Completely agree.

The lesson I learned was to not buy generic brand stuff from Amazon. The one I have is dreadful. The temperature dial is meaningless, the grip gets hot with the iron, and the tips that come with it* are absolutely awful. Even at low soldering temperatures they can’t take the heat, and at this point all of them have their cracked, chipped, or have otherwise become completely blunt.

But hey I got a nice generic tool bag full of wires that don’t conduct, insulation tape that doesn’t insulate, tiny screwdrivers, blunt snips, and “lead-free” solder that absolutely has lead in it.

* and it seems to be a fitting that nothing else will fit apart from the rubbish tips that come with a thousand other almost-identical generic soldering irons you can get from Amazon.

I also wonder about the new breed of smart irons. ts-100, pinecil are microprocessor controlled irons and aren't expensive.

They work great in my experience. I solder small surface mount stuff so the relative lack of power isn’t an issue.

Agreed. There is a huge difference learning to solder SMDs with a Metcal or Thermaltronics system vs a Weller or Hakko system.

I cry for all the time I wasted soldering before finally sucking it up and getting a Metcal.

Look if I can't flash my own IronOS firmware unto my USB-C powered TS100 iron what is even the point? What am I, a farmer?

https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS

I didn't spend hours watching YouTube reviews comparing soldering irons for nothing. This is $70 well spent.

In case anybody thinks I am being sarcastic, I am actually not. Look into it, worth it.

I was thinking this same thing - get a good T100-ish iron (preferably a Pinecil[0]), a 60W USB3 power supply, some good 60/40 solder, and you're at least 90% of the way to a real professional soldering station.

[0] https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-solde...

Price isn't the main differentiator, it's temperature control and an iron that isn't so big it's hard to maneuver.

$20 is enough to buy a decent temperature-controlled iron these days (mainly clones based on the Hakko 936 design).

Meh, I began my soldering journey with a modest $20 unit. As I worked with it, I learned to adapt to its limitations. Eventually, I decided to upgrade to a superior unit, which undoubtedly saved me a significant amount of time. However, the initial investment wasn't necessary for me to get started.

In my experience, it's crucial to have a versatile set of soldering tips to handle various scenarios. Attempting to solder small pads with a massive tip can be a daunting task, just as using a minuscule tip to heat up a large pad linked to the ground plane can prove to be ineffective. It's all about having the right tool for the job.

Same experience. I recently bought a music activated led glasses soldering kit from Amazon. I put it together with an iron kit that was 20 bucks on amazon.

Also I bought a more expensive yuhaun hot air/soldering station (name might not be exact) I used the $20 iron to solder my drone connection and it work perfectly fine with proper technique.

I cannot tell the different in build between the 20 unit and the more expensive station.

Also the brass sponge in the hakko cleaner is nothing more than a chewy boy brass sponge. $1 at your local shady gas station.

> iron kit that was 20 bucks on amazon

>yuhaun hot air/soldering station (name might not be exact)

>I cannot tell the different

sadly thats because they are most likely the same crap using 900 series tips

Totally agree. My first soldering iron was a cheap ($20) Chinese POS that simply couldn't get hot enough. Every time, I'd end up with crusty misshapen blocks because the solder would partially solidify before it even came off the tip of the iron. Got fed up and bought a moderately expensive iron, and the difference was night and day.

There's no need to splurge on a high-end soldering iron straight away, but definitely don't get the cheapest one you can find.

While we’re at it:

1. Don’t use a wet sponge. If you have a good soldering iron with good tips, you’ll want to use something that looks like a ball of metal shavings instead. It’ll work better, and you won’t oxidize your tips. They’re cheap and last quite a while. Some nicer irons ship with those in addition to or instead of sponges. I haven’t had much luck using these with cheap soldering irons, though, for whatever reason.

2. With a bad soldering iron, you’ll likely find yourself stuck in a cycle of cleaning the tip, tinning the tip, removing oxidation, and, ultimately, replacing the tip. It’s horribly frustrating. If this sounds like your soldering experience, ditch the wet sponge and get a better iron. It’s not you; it’s your tools.

3. Prep is important, especially when doing repairs. Older electronics have a lot of oxidation and are harder to solder. Spend more time on prep, less time on soldering. Don’t try to reuse the solder that’s already on the board.

4. Get Kapton tape (generic name: polyimide tape). Don’t bother getting a combo pack of different sizes; just stick to the half-inch size. Use it copiously. It’s cheap on AliExpress and will save you a lot of trouble. Tape All The Things. Avoid electrical tape; it melts, ruins soldering iron tips, and leaves a nasty residue.

5. Cheap dental explorers and scalers make for great prep tools. They’re cheaper than picks you might get from a hardware store, and they’re usually sharper.

6. Get desoldering wick and flux. The flux core inside the solder often isn’t enough for repair work. Soldering wick is the best way to remove old, stubborn solder. Soak it in flux first if you’re really having trouble. Some people say to get high-quality desoldering wick, but I’ve found soaking cheap wick in flux to be about as effective.

7. I keep isopropyl alcohol in a little squirt bottle and use it to clean off any grime, electrolyte, or whatever else might have accumulated on the PCB.

I've not done much soldering because the cheap soldering iron I bought to do occasional fixes can't actually melt solder.

Espresso machines are the same way. I worked for years at my steaming on a cheap machine, never quite getting it right. Then I get a La Marzocco and steaming is easy, barely any technique to it. Kind of demoralizing. Guitar tone is the same, at least for overdriven guitar, and still to some extent for clean.

I learned to solder electronic components together by age 12

I'm going to differ with you and a lot of other people echo-ing.

Sure, if you know you'll do a lot of soldering, by all means take the expensive iron. But if you only need to fix an appliance here and there? Go with the basic one.

I've been using the same cheap iron someone gifted me 10 years ago (probably a 30€ one or so), and ... it works. It takes some time to heat up, so I'll just turn it on and go grab a coffee, and it's not super clean or whatnot ... but I fix appliances, I don't care as long as it's fixed.

I'm not trying to get good at soldering either. I'm probably bad, but I don't really care. My appliances get fixed regardless. I really only need a basic level that's used once, perhaps twice a year, and for that, the cheap soldering iron is more than enough.

I learned to solder electronic components by age 12, and later I ran an electronics operation where all of my staff could solder proficiently—they had to as bad soldering could easily have jeopardized the functioning of critical equipment. (Back then, anyone interested in electronics had to be up to speed with soldering or they couldn't do the job. Then soldering wasn't seen as a novelty or something unfamiliar as many of these posts indicate, it was taken for granted that everyone knew how to solder proficiently.)

That preface was necessary to indicate how vital hand soldering skills were to electronics and communication industries and to show that what I say next comes from long experience.

Bluntly, you're right to quote that text as not good advice as without certain stipulations it's very misleading; and that your own experience from using better soldering tools is exactly what is to be expected (it's the right advice). In short, don't use cheap crappy soldering equipment even as a beginner (you'll likely develop bad, hard-to-shake habits), rather buy the best you can afford. Moreover, one should not only buy a decent soldering iron with variable temperature control (or tips that work at different temperatures) but also it should support the wattage necessary to keep the tips at the correct temperature for the type of work you anticipate doing.

Same logic applies to your ancillary tools and consumables: use high quality solder with cored flux and always have a range of gauges to hand, always use 'solder wick', and or a decent desoldering tool, have syringes of flux† with correct size dispensing nozzles (flat-end/orifice hypodermic-like needles); and always have plenty of isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol) and suitable brushes for removing surplus flux/cleaning up (if it's unavailable then at a pinch use 95% or greater ethanol as a substitute).

I can't go into good soldering techniques here but I'll finish by saying always solder at the correct temperature and always clean (wipe) your iron's tips before use (and don't 'burn' them by leaving them switched on for long periods when not in use).

† There's different types of flux for different jobs—a flux, say, for reflowing IC leads on a PCB will use a different type to that used for soldering old components whose tinning may be slightly oxidized.