1st Crack at PCB Soldering

practice

flux.

proper solder (I like old school, lower temp lead / tin rather than silver bearing)

not too big an iron, get it hot QUICK and solder QUICK. So you don't want too small, either. You don't want to have to sit there with the iron on the work for any period.

"see". My eyes are bad enough now, and boards are SMALL enough now, that I finally got on ebay and bought some junk stereo microscopes. Bausch and Lomb, etc. "Regular" magnifier lamps work for some things, but not enough for me, anymore.

Similar to this, and then either buy or build enough hardware to support it. You want something about .7---1X magnification in the head, and then eyepieces "as you want." This one has 16X eyepieces, which might be a "little much" for some work. 5x -- 10X eyepieces more typical

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bausch-and-...958725?hash=item2eebd2d605:g:4HAAAOSwgQ9Vp~N7