Soldering Help

Cardas solder is very easy to work with.  Actually, it sometimes helps to melt your existing solder points with a tiny bit of Cardas solder.  A lot of cold solder joints are hard to heat up and melt.

I know you are not serious about doing soldering, but avoid those 25 or 30 watt hobby level soldering irons.  You really need a good power supply and solder tip heating element to keep the heat constant and hot enough.  You should consider anything that is at the 60 to 75 watt level.

If you have a digital soldering station, I would recommend temps between 350 and 399 degrees Celsius.  Do not go above 399.  If you are using a larger tip (such as a 2mm or larger), I would try something between 350 and 370 C.  I have seen traces being lifted off the board with large tips at 399 degrees.  I would be conservative on initial temps because not all soldering stations may show actual temperatures.  Start around 350 and work up from there if you really need the heat.

WASH YOUR HANDS after you work with solder or soldering tools. Like others have said, lead is still a component in many solders.

solder without lead will screw up soldering of electronics. for that reason i only buy vintage solder rolls that I can usually find in scrap stores or fleamarkets. Have many vintage Kester rolls that are easy to work with.

 While you will get all kinds of advice, the actual test is to begin practicing on different size wires, using perhaps different solders as well. Personally, I did NOT find my soldering skills to be any good until I found a good soldering station, good solder (in my case, I usually use Wonder solder), and a way to hold the object being soldered. Further, the proper heat of the iron and the tip used for the job are as important as anything. Don't bother with cheap tools expecting great results. 

  When you see that you're ready from practice, then it is the right time to move on to the project at hand.  

It would be good to practice soldering skills on trashed circuit boards, you'll find out how easy to lift solder pads!

Amazon has some practice solder kits. I did some practice on that before I put in new drivers and reattached wires on the crossover of my speakers.