Introduction: 6 Soldering Life Hacks
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About: Hi, I'm Tamas. I like to build all kinds of electronic gadgets, hope you'll like my ideas. I'm not so active on the site these days, so sorry for the late replies. (Oh, and sorry for my broken English in these…
I think that the soldering is one of the most important part while making a project. I have some life hacks that I use sometimes, and they makes soldering easier or clearer. These life hacks can be used in a case of an emergency, but I have some tricks even for beginners. Hope you like it, and vote on me at the Soldering Challange.
Step 1: The Cardboard Circuit
If you haven't PCBs when you're making a project you can use cardboard to replace it. Example here's this LED with the resistor, and you only need to make the holes with a needle plug the parts in then solder them together. If I'm not at home I use this life hack very frequently.
Step 2: Third Hands
You can use clothes-pegs to hold your parts fix.
Step 3: Another Helping Hand
The metal wire cutters can be great helping hands, because they hold everything strong.
Step 4: Soldering Iron Stand (less Than $0.5)
Get a very strong metal wire and follow the photos. This is a very easy to make and stable soldering iron stand. Just bend the wire in a spiral and make a rectangle leg for it. I use this in my weekend house, because I can't bring with myself the full soldering station every time.
Step 5: Cleaning the Tip
I don't like to use a sponge for tip cleaning because the low temperature of the water damages the tip. I usually take a copper wire then make a small ball (or something like that) from it then clean my soldering iron with it. Just be careful don't burn yourself!
Step 6: Heat Shrink Tube From Crasser Wire
If you need a heat shrink tube and you haven't at home you can use this easy and effective mode. Use an empty plastic tube (it's cutted from a crasser wire) and plug yur wire in. Works perfect.