Melting the solder
And then there’s the iron. Not the one used (very rarely) to flatten a shirt with a form of its own. The soldering iron, or the variations thereof. I’ve been soldering stuff, badly, for a long time. It goes back to that dream of owning the ultimate patch cord kit, the one that only the rich can aspire to.
I seem to remember a certain wood-burning gift, when I was still young enough for my mother to think I had artistic talents. I burned a horse head, and something with leaves and stems, and my initials. And then, along came wire and solder. My father never owned a soldering gun, mainly because we weren’t a tool owning household. However, a couple of friends had them, and it was really cool to see how 200 watts of pure heat could make lead into puddles. Not very efficient if you want to work around anything other than point-to-point wiring jobs, but I’ll admit that I now own one. Antenna connectors demand nothing but heat.
There was a brief introduction to “real” soldering irons, heated in gas-fired furnaces, but those were meant for sheet metal workers; not relevant. There’s a sugar scoop with my name on it, somewhere. A work of art. Thankfully nobody ever mentioned electronics in the same breath as tinsnips.
Along the way, I started to build the occasional kit, including a HW-8 that still works thirty years later. Smaller, more accurate irons were available, and my friends convinced me that charring the component wasn’t the best approach. Thank you, friends (you know who you are). Over the years I’ve added a certain number of cheap, low wattage irons to the arsenal, and even my children consider iPod repairs as a life skill.
I’ve recently acquired a basic “soldering station” and I’ve learned that there’s a whole other world out there. Industrial, heat controlled, static-proof, able to desolder as well. Tips in a variety of sizes and form factors. A place to put a hot iron so that the house has fewer brands. So many things to dream about owning.
