Chapter 7

The Secrets of Successful Soldering

IN THIS CHAPTER

check Assembling your soldering toolkit

check Soldering

check Distinguishing a good solder joint from a not-so-good one

check Undoing a bad solder joint

Soldering is one of the basic skills of building electronic projects. Although you can use solderless breadboards to build test versions of your circuits, sooner or later you’ll want to build permanent versions of your circuits. To do that, you need to know how to solder.

In this chapter, you learn the basics of soldering: how soldering works, what tools and equipment you need for soldering, and how to create the perfect solder joint. You also learn how to correct your mistakes when (not if) you make them.

Keep in mind throughout this chapter that soldering is a skill that takes a bit of practice to master. It’s not nearly as hard as playing the French horn, but soldering does have a learning curve. When you’re first getting started, you’ll feel like you’re all thumbs, and your solder joints may look less than perfect. But stick with it — with a little practice, you’ll get the hang of soldering ...

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