This guide will help operators select and use correct soldering equipment to obtain effective results when soldering electronic components.
Before looking at soldering you must also consider what other tools you need in order to perform the soldering to its best, if you are a service engineer you will need a tool case or better still a ready made or custom made tool kit.
Service engineers tools consist of a good quality tool case containing pliers side cutters snipe nose pliers flat nose pliers water pump pliers hand operated de-soldering pump solder braid set of screwdrivers jewellers screwdrivers neon screwdriver soldering iron a w61 or w101 will normally do for most applications and if the work is to be done on static sensitive products than a antistatic work mat with antistatic wrist band and coil cords is essential.
If the work is to be done in a workshop then the tools are much the same but mains iron is normally replaced with a soldering station like the state of art self switching on off Weller WD1000T soldering station. Work benches are normally covered with antistatic or dissipative bench matting and termination points for coil cords and antistatic wrist bands are provided as well as antistatic or dissipative floor matting and in hi-tech works areas special clothing is provided and the use of instruments for checking static charges is in place.
