Mindboards

I'm going to be working on homebrew projects soon, and I need to know parts are required for soldering.
Any help/tips?

You mean, you need to know what you need to be able to solder? It depends on what you want to do, but to get started, I would say you need a soldering iron (can be a $10 one), and some rosin core solder. You probably should get something like .032" (or .062" for larger joints) 60/40 solder. Also some small hand tools are a must.

Small hand tools? Like what?

fuzzball27 wrote:Small hand tools? Like what?

i.e., small scale screw driver (especially Phillip's head), needle nose pliers, wire cutter. stuff like that. nothing to special

oh ok. would this be an appropriate iron?
I can't find the exact specs.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062737

That one should be fine for most general soldering.

As some people here on the forums already know, I like SparkFun . They have put together three tool kits, basic, intermediate and advanced. I haven't actually bought one of the tool kits but with the tools I have picked up here and there I have something that would qualify as intermediate. I have the cheap soldering iron (fire starter) sold by them, the pliers, clippers, tweezers and the little screwdriver. I can say that the iron exceeded my expectations. If you take good care of it, it will last a couple years and it will most likely be better than anything you buy at Radio Shack (unless it's not made by them). The other tools are also of fairly good quality, not the best but as they say, you get what you paid for. Of course, you have to pay for shipping but if I had to start from scratch with my tool kit I would get the intermediate. The advanced might be a bit much to spend if your just getting started.

Oh and if you do get the tweezers please don't leave them on the floor. I've found out the hard way how sharp these are. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "bleeding like a stuck pig".

What about replacement tips? What is the solder wick?

Yes, the tip is also replaceable. If you go to the iron's product page you can see that in the related items there are several replacement tips. However, I have used my soldering iron to solder at least 500+ joints and it still looks shiny. Be sure to clean it regularly though, otherwise it won't last much more than a week.

Solder wick is used to de-solder joints if you messed up or to solder surface mount components. As far as de-soldering goes, I prefer to use a solder vacuum. It just is easier to use and it seems to work better.

To clean the iron should I use a special cleaner or something like a rag?