Best Solder & Flux
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Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"To get a good solder joint, the parts to be joined MUST be clean! Press the hot iron against the joint and touch the solder wire to the iron tip where it contacts the joint. Let a very small amount of solder melt and get drawn into the joint to help heat to travel into the joint. Then touch the solder to the part being soldered. To get a good joint, the JOINT, NOT THE IRON must melt the solder. The solder MUST "wet" the joint and flow into the joint smoothly. Do not try to melt a blob of solder onto the iron's tip and carry it to the joint. It makes soldering it very difficult, so it's usually crimped or welded.. Copper and brass oxide films will also prevent solder from adhering, so even if you CLEAN before soldering, you need a flux to dissolve and prevent oxidation at the joint during soldering. Trying to protect parts from heat by using a low-temperature or undersized iron will actually result in MORE overheating of the parts because the heat will have more time to travel to the part even if the solder joint is unsuccessful. Do this: Use a good temperature-controlled soldering iron such as aWeller W60P 60Watts/120V Controlled Output Soldering Iron with a 1/16" or 1/8" tip for electronics or up to a 1/4" tip for heavier work. I use 600F temperature tips for 60/40 solder, though 700F might be better for lead-free solder. I have been buying Elenco AmeriKit Learn to Solder Kits for my kids, nieces, nephews, and friends who want to learn to solder."
"I have switched to Kester and Miniatronics branded solder for my projects and have since had a way easier time producing good and consistent joints without using extra flux."
"Works wonderfully for the small hobbyist level jobs that I do for a novice(still learning) solderer."
"That's probably the reason lead solder was recommended to me as being easier to use."
"The rosin core definitely helped with wetting and oxidation problems, and 60 Pb / 40 Sn works at lower temperature than many of the lead-free alternatives."
"I simply applied the Alpha Fry solder over the old joints and suddenly had a smooth, shiny solder joint."
"It's kind of hard the really "rate" solder, because if you're gun stinks, then no solder is going to work properly."
"It's the best for electrical wires, but it shouldn't be used with cold-heat solders."
Rosin" 44" is a high activity RA core flux designed for excellent instant wetting action, even on nickel surfaces.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Do you want a lead solder with a competent flux that will bond your connections like a champ, and give off fumes with the sweet taste of Bismuth salts and antimony that pairs nicely with a glass of Montepulciano or a Sanghiovese? No need for the constant reminder from our electronic devices that die before their time, due to inferior Rohs compliant solders. Take it from me: a scientist; put a roll of this bad boy in your laboratory and watch the panties drop. Fact: women are drawn to the sweet smell of Bismuth salts and the pheromones excreted by a man with acute lead toxicity coursing through his veins are unmistakably unique. Pretty sure Darwin mentions the mechanics of this exact biological drive in his work "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" but I wouldn't know. From observation I can assure you, heat up some of this solder, sit back and watch the women come in droves."
"Getting this solder made me twice(conservatively) the solder guy I was."
"I absolutely love this solder for the wiring harnesses I've been making recently."
"Lots of solder for a great price."
"This is some of the best solder I have ever used."
"The best wetting and flowing solder."
"New millennium, same solder and it is still great stuff."
"I just simply love it."
Style: Pack of 1 Kester ""44"" 60/40 Solder Rosin ""44"" Is A High Activity Ra Core Flux Designed For Excellent Instant Wetting Action, Even On Nickel Surfaces. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The diameter works great for the smaller projects I've been working on (small PCBs, etc."
"I got this upon a recommendation from a friend."
"Purchased a solder reel at the same time, match made in heaven."
"It’s solder."
"Don't waste your money on no name solder!!!"
"I highly recommend this solder for use when building FPV Miniquads!"
"Buy these wherever and whenever you can - soon these lead items will not be available and then how ar you going to solder?"
"This is my second reorder pf this product. Pros: + product as described. + photo as Shown. + Good quality. + Solders well. Cons: - None. -- How I rate –. 5 Stars: Works exactly as advertised, is a good value at the price point purchased, would buy again or recommend to a friend."
Best Brazing Flux
To use: apply paste flux to all leads with syringe; melt ChipQuik alloy on all pins of SMD; with wide iron tip; maintain alloy in a molten state long enough to release chip; lift chip from board with pick-up tool.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Helped me replace a qfn48 that was very tight fit."
"Love this flux."
"This stuff is great, will be buying again."
"I use this mainly to desolder terminal strips as well as high pin-count SMD packages."
"At work I use liquid rosin flux but this is much more suitable for home use."
Best Brazing Rods
Size: 3/32" |. Style: 10# Box. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"These filler rods seem to work well, they are a bit long to try and handle but I've seen many people like to cut the 3 ft long rods in half to make them more manageable."
"Great rods, burn nice, not a lot of contaminants like some of the other cheaper filler I've bought before."
"Seems like a good value and I've been really happy with the quality."
"Just normal, good quality welding rods."
"learng TIG, so I really needed these."
"good product, fast delivery."
"Item as advertized looks good."
Best Solder
Style: Pack of 1 Kester ""44"" 60/40 Solder Rosin ""44"" Is A High Activity Ra Core Flux Designed For Excellent Instant Wetting Action, Even On Nickel Surfaces. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Most solder joints will not require additional flux application unless you are working on an oxidized or contaminated circuit board."
"The diameter works great for the smaller projects I've been working on (small PCBs, etc."
"I believe Kester is a great company that have been making solder for decades."
"I got this upon a recommendation from a friend."
"Purchased a solder reel at the same time, match made in heaven."
"It’s solder."
"Don't waste your money on no name solder!!!"
"I highly recommend this solder for use when building FPV Miniquads!"
Best Soldering Flux
Excellent wettability, no clean, non-conductive, non-tacky residues, compatible with lead free and leaded solder systems, thixotropic paste and RoHS compliant.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Good stuff."
"Fast delivery."
"Used this to do some TV repairs."
"Just what I needed to reflow a micro USB connector."
"Will buy more when needed."
Best Soldering Heat Guns
It produces 1200 watts and 4100 btus of power with temperature settings of 750 degree f or 1000 degree f. The Ht1000 is ideal for diyers, homeowners, handymen or part-time contractors. General purpose gun for stripping paint, thawing pipes, loosening floor tiles. General purpose gun for stripping paint, thawing pipes, loosening floor tiles.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this knowing that it would be used for many different applications, but the immediate one was to restore the plastic cladding on my Chevy Avalanche which had faded into a dull grey, and stuck out like a sore thumb with the factory black paint. A heat gun has many purposes, tinting windows, shrink wrapping/window sealing, removing caulk, loosening glued on items, and as you can see, automotive plastic restoration, done mostly sober."
"This worked very well to melt a dolls face for a Halloween prop."
"Truly wish I had found this a long time ago! The scraping tool comes w/ different profile tips to assist in removing paint from the many angles / profiles of trim, etc. Care should be taken - MUST be taken bc the end gets & stay hot."
"Not a lot of control over the heat levels (medium and high) and it takes a long time to cool down the gun and the control of the direction of the heat is not as easy as some other guns I have used."
"I use it to shrink wrap all my homemade products. Personally, if you are just looking to shrink wrap I think a weaker gun may be better."
"Used in conjunction with "Anytime Tools 127 pc Heat Shrink Wire Wrap Cable Sleeve Tubing Sets..." Purchased this because enough cables around the house were starting to fray and we needed to re-sleeve the damaged items. Bottom line: Buy it if you need a heat gun, be it for paint stripping or shrink-wrapping."
"I use this on the low setting only so I will not be able to write a review on the high setting."
"This gun lacks the cool down setting (fan with no heat) like some of the others have, turn it off and it stays hot for a LONG time, brush your hand/arm across the nozzle soon after turning off and you'll be burned, drop it from a ladder when removing paint or knock it over on your workbench (very light and not particularly stable) and you might start a fire."
Best Soldering Guns & Irons
Kit contents include Versa Tip butane tool, storage case, soldering tip, deflector, cutting knife, hot air tip, wide blower tip, shaping knife, solder, sponge, tins, wrenches and protective cap. 14-piece kit offers versatile accessory range for: soldering, hot cutting, shrinking, wood burning and area heating.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought the VersaTip for the times I need to solder something outside and do not feel like running an extension cord, for quick soldering of wires as this unit heats up very quickly, and to use the hot air top for heat shrink and desoldering jobs. The difference between this product, the VersaTip, and Dremel's other product in this category the VersaFlame is the VersaTip is more suited for jobs that need more accuracy and fine control such as soldering and pyrography. The flame head on the VersaFlame does not not require disassembly to add the solder tip attachments where the VersaTip requires unscrewing the cage around the flame tip and adding in a metal threaded tube to accept the solder tip but this is not a big deal. Other very similar products. Blazer SI-100CR Excalibur Multi-Purpose Butane Torch and Hot Air Soldering Kit. Power Probe PPSK Butane Soldering Kit. both have a much better case design that locks closed."
"I use the Power Probe brand at work quite often, but with this being cheaper and with the spotty reliability of the Power Probe, I decided on this Dremel brand instead."
"So far I have soldered some jewelry and fixed a light string, both using the torch and silver solder, but I tried the soldering tip and the included solder on the lights and it didn't work."
"The only thing I don't like is you have to be really careful as the exhaust from the tip is like a blowtorch although it doesn't have flame shooting out."
"Does not come with Butane so order that and I am getting him a little work bag to carry versus tin can."
"I've owned other butane based soldering tools before and this beats them all."
"I used this for wood burning to make a set of coasters for a friend."
"Great purchase."
Best Soldering Stations
Reliable digital technology by HAKKO – Introducing the HAKKO FX-888D Excellent thermal recovery Heater output has been increased by 30% compared to that of the conventional models HAKKO 936·937. Comes with fx-888d, fx-8801 soldering iron, t18-d16 tip, Fh800 iron holder, A1559 sponge, A1561 cleaning wire, manual.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In performing these tasks, I have used "specialized" soldering tips (the T18-D16 chisel tip is standard) with smaller tip mass used to solder circuit boards with small component "pads." And, the temperature at the tip will NOT necessarily be the temperature indicated on the screen, especially with lower mass tips (lower mass tips will be "colder" than the temperature displayed on the screen). Most, if any, soldering stations in this price range don't have soldering tip/handle temperature sensors. Why Hakko designers have the "calibration temperature adjustment" mode on the "UP" button is a mystery. I, like countless others, have accidentally entered the "Performing a temperature adjustment" mode (as the instruction manual calls it) and a "mis-calibration" was made resulting in an inaccurate tip settings incongruent to display screen readings (can be hundreds of degrees off). I accidentally entered this mode by holding in the "UP" button for more than 2 seconds, which is what one would do IF we wanted (intuitively) to raise the temperature of the unit while soldering. Holding in the "UP" button for more than two seconds actually puts you into the "Temperature adjustment" MODE and whatever digital inputs you put into the unit at this point WILL CHANGE THE CALIBRATION OF TEMPERATURE SETTINGS (as opposed to just changing the tip temperature) and the result will be in-congruencies between what the screen shows and what your soldering tip temperature is! One is that you purchase a soldering tip temperature reading device/thermometer that will give you an accurate tip reading at high temperatures (not many "thermometers" out there that will do this). Then you can calibrate any soldering tip to the precise temperature setting the job requires. However this, of course, puts one back at the start with possible inaccurate tip temperatures when using smaller mass soldering tips--BUT, AT LEAST THIS WILL MAKE YOUR SOLDERING STATION USEFUL AGAIN. I don't know why this factory reset information was NOT included in the owner's/instruction manual, SINCE it is so easy to accidentally enter the temperature setting mode to screw up the temperature calibration! For those that need to reset the FX888D back to factory, default settings, here is the reset sequence: Resetting Hakko FX888D to factory "default" settings: 1. (You can now set your temperature at the desired setting and begin soldering!)."
"Solder away to your hearts content and when done simply wipe on a wet sponge and wala, your tip is shiny as new."
"Japanese made soldering station."
"Excellent value for the money, and tons of tips available."
"The adjustable temperature gives you a very wide range of heat for most electronics jobs from delicate to more substantial parts."
"I received a prompt response the next morning stating: "the unit you purchased is a legit unit that was purchased by one of our distributors" and then the rep offered to register the unit for me!"
"This is an awesome soldering station and works for hours on end without any issues."
"I just soldered a TSSOP28 with this thing in a couple minutes and I regret I didn't buy this earlier."
Best Soldering Parts & Accessories
Specification: Working Voltage: 110V. Power: 60 watt. Soldering Iron Length: 7.4 inch. Cable Length: 59 inch. Temperature Range: 200-450℃- (392-842℉). Tips Model: 900M Series. Solder Wire: 60% Sn, 38% Pb, 2.0% Flux. Solder Wire Diameter: 0.039 inch. Solder Wire Weight: 0.38 oz. Package Inculded: 1x Adjustable Temperature Soldering Iron (with 900M-T-B Lead-free Soldering Iron Tips). 1x Solder Wire. 5x Extra Lead-free Soldering Iron Tips. 1x Desoldering Pump. 2x Anti-static Tweezers. 1x Stand with Cleaning Sponge. 1x Solder Wick. 1x Tool Box. Place the solder wire onto soldering point when the weldment is heated to the temperature that is able to melt solder. [8-in-1 FULL KIT] - Kit comes with soldering iron, desoldering pump, solder wick, solder wire, stand with cleaning sponge, 5 solder tips, 2 anti-static tweezers and a hard carry case to meet all your soldering project needs. [USER ATTENTION] - Please do not hang the soldering tips; place the tips down when heating.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Like the extra/different tips, sponge, tweezers, solder, and case!"
"We have a few small electronic devices that have had metal pieces break (one being my son's remote control helicopter)."
"I choose this item over other mainly because of the price and the case, look at that tiny tool box like the case! You’ll find many other sellers have similar item but this one is the tool box case that makes this a great purchase."
"My husband needed a soldering iron to make repairs on his truck."
"My husband swears he can fix everything with the right tools, so I picked out this soldering kit because of the many accessories and the price."
"I am a hobbyist and I fixed my cars PCB lights using these tools and it saved me over $2000 in parts and labor."
"It has literally everything you need for small soldering repair jobs!it comes with a small tool storage box to keep everything together easily!"
"It has a nice stand to hold the iron so you won't burn yourself or anything around you."
Best Brazing Torches
The GT8000 has an anti-flare, brass frame nozzle, for safety and flame control. The torch has an angled head, and its flame range is 1.25 to 5.0 inches. Blazer Products is known worldwide for its original micro torch products.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Another great thing about the torch I've noticed is that it regulates the gas better than any torch I've had, in the sense that it allows you to use every last bit. And as many people suggest to empty the torch before refilling it, you won't waste that last bit of fuel like with other torches, where the flame just slowly goes down to an unusably small flame for the last 10% of the gas. Then wait at least 20-25 minutes to allow the gas to warm up inside the torch; it is very cold and there is the possibility of liquid butane being sent through the nozzle of your torch, which will damage it."
"I've been using it regularly to light my wood burners, and the flame is hot enough that I've only needed a piece or two of kindling - with seasoned wood, I can usually get the actual logs to ignite."
"I've gone through quite a few of these ranging from $10-$35 and decided to pay the premium and boy is it worth it."
"I have dropped a few torches over the years and would be lucky if any of them survived one drop off the table."
"Powerful, reliable, durable, and lasts forever when you fill it."
"A youtube video convinced me to purchase this torch to replace my Blazer Hotshot, which had a broken ignition. My main reasons for purchasing this torch were the powerful flame and lack of a safety."
"Best Dab Torch I've ever owned."
"I've had this torch for over a year now."
Best Fume & Smoke Extraction Equipment
When used in the low-profile (laying down) position, efficiency and air flow is increased by approximately 2.6 times.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It's expensive but if you do a lot of soldering what choice do you have it works just like it's supposed to and really beats smelling all those nasty toxic fumes."
"I use this when soldering stained glass."
"This thing really moves the air, without creating a draft, and without being too loud."
"It’s a Hakko, works great."
"Currently I turn it on and off and on and off, whereas i just leave the soldering iron on during the whole session because unlike the noise that doesn't bother me."
"Works great!"
"Works really well."
"It's alright for a little guy not very strong you have to have it up close and personal."