Soldering prerequisites........................................................................
If you’ve ever used wax to seal an envelope, you understand the basic premise
of soldering. Take a material (in this case, solder; pronounced sod-der) and
heat it so that it melts onto items, such as two wires you have twisted
together to make a physical connection. When the solder cools, you have a
seal or joint that makes an electrical connection between the items.Soldering requires that you get your hands on a few basic items:Soldering iron:See an example of one in Figure 3-1.Get one rated at about 30 watts, preferably one for which you can buy dif-
ferent size tips so you can work on different types of projects. And make
sure to get an iron with a three-prong plug so that it will be grounded.
Tips:Large tips can be chisel-shaped and about^1 ⁄ 8 " wide; small tips can
have a cone shape with a radius at the tip of only^1 ⁄ 64 ". Most soldering
irons don’t specify the tip sizes that are supplied with the iron. For most
electronics work, we suggest you just find one described as a fine tip at
a electronics supplier. If you’re ordering a replacement tip, a^3 ⁄ 64 " cone
shape is a good size for general use. If you’re soldering circuit boards,
you might try a^1 ⁄ 64 " cone-shaped tip. Figure 3-1 shows a soldering iron
with a collection of different tip sizes and shapes.Figure 3-1:
A collection
of tips, a
soldering
iron, and
a stand.32 Part I: Project Prep