Electronic Tool - Soldering Iron

In my last post I wrote about pliers. For today's topic, I will be writing more on soldering.

Soldering can be defined as joining any various alloys by applying solder to the joint between metal objects, without heating the objects to the melting point.

Soldering iron is a very important tool in electronics, it is a tool used specifically to interconnect components via a printed circuit board or simply interconnecting components directly via their respective terminals. 

fig 2. Soldering station.
Source: Simon A. Eugster, CC BY-SA 3.0,
 via Wikimedia Commons

Unlike in the past, a typical soldering iron (fig 1) has come along way when it comes to technology, from the old single rated soldering iron to the variable temperature type (fig 2) that allows adjustment of the the irons' tip temperature.  

Aside from this, replaceable tips have also become popular, where in a tip is replaced based on the type of soldering that will be performed. 

Having a soldering iron is not enough however, for a serious electronic hobbyist, student.  

fig 3. Soldering iron on a stand.
Source: Benoît Prieur , CC0,
via Wikimedia Commons

For safety purposes, one also need to have a soldering iron stand, (fig 3) where you can place the soldering iron when not being used, this is necessary to avoid possible accidents that can happen when performing soldering.  

Worth noting is that soldering requires melting a "filler" to make fusing alloys together. 

Just imagine the amount of heat needed to melt this filler, definitely, you don't want to feel that heat with your hands. 

Moving forward and answering the question, what do you do when you make a mistake after performing soldering? or how do you remove unnecessary or excessive fillers? 

The answer is simple frankly, you only need to use a "solder sucker" or "desoldering tool." (Fig 4.)

fig. 4 Solder sucker
source: Ejay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In my next blog, I will be writing on testing / measuring tool.  Till then, Cheers!