Appendix 2: Soldering Tutorial
Figure 40: Cheap soldering iron, solder and wick from JAMECO.....................
Figure 41: Seasoning the tip................................................................................
When you first plug in your soldering iron stand by with the solder and as soon as
the tip heats up (takes a while on a cheap iron) liberally coat it with solder as
shown in Figure 41. The rest of the tip will rapidly loose its shiny newness and
develop a burned look. The seasoned part will remain shiny and useful.
Get an old cellulose or natural sponge to use to clean the excess solder off the tip.
Keep it moist and when the tip gets crapped up with charred resin, circuit board,
and finger-burn goo, just wipe it on the sponge and ... ssssssttt... it’s all clean and
shiny again. Don’t use a synthetic sponge unless you really like the stench of
burning plastic.