Hello BLF,
While being quarantined for the last month, I have had a plenty of time to catch up with a pile of projects that I have been procrastinating about in the last couple of years. One of those was to assemble the soldering station I had received from China a while back. It is a Ksger T12 + hot air combo with oled interface, but without the case. The problem were missing headers for the handle connector and couple of solder points needed bridging. Thankfuly, I had found mysku.ru thread reviewing the same product and showing the necessary modifications and brought it to life.
Now that I have a proper temperature controlled iron, I want to purchase various supplies and tools that I may need for electronics assembly and repair, mainly flashlights, drivers, and mechanical keyboards (so smd stuff). My research led me to believe that most of this stuff from Aliexpress is either counterfeit or simply of inadequate quality, so I would like to order from Arrow.com since they are the only site of the kind offering free shipping to my country for orders over $50. Another option is Farnell.com with 15 GBP shipping, but I’d prefer Arrow since they carry $5/1kg 3D printing filament and I need some (when I mentioned projects on backburner, Voron 3D is one of them).
I have a list of things I think I need, and I would really appreciate your input and suggestions.
solder - MG Chemicals RA 63/37 0.8mm 225g $17 - 63/37 should be the easiest to work with, and 0.8mm diameter seems like a solid all-around choice
flux - MG Chemicals RA Liquid flux 835 100ml $9 - I don’t mind cleaning up with isopropyl and everybody seems to agree that RA is the easiest to work with. I will buy some sort of empty refillable marker and fill it with this stuff since flux pens are hugely overpriced.
solder wick - MG Chemicals Wick 424 1.5mm $3 - soaked with RA, I think 1.5mm width makes it versatile enough
wire - I know I need a bunch of it, all kinds - enameled, silicon, flexible, solid core, but I’m not sure what gauges to get.
wire stripper - these things, as anything made from metal as I learned, can get expensive. So I need something cheap, but reliable, for small gauges. I’m really tired of stripping wire with swiss knife as I have been doing it until now.
crimping tool - I jusy want to be able to securely crimp the most of the common connectors. 2.54 dupont stuff, jst, xt, you get the idea. Since I’m building a 3d printer, this one I really need - bunch of connectors everywhere. Crimping computer psu molex connectors could come in handy for custom cables.
cutters - Weller Xcelite products seem to be praised and are not too expensive (~$20), but have no idea what to choose. This producer was also recommended by our ttrev3 here, but his cutters are not available. (I also completely forgot about asking, sorry Everet!)
tweezers - never thought there is a science behind tweezers, but apparently there is. Wiha recommended by Everet is not available (again) and everyone else seems to be hung on Swiss vendors such as Ideal-tek, but Arrow doesn’t carry them and are quite expensive. From stuff available there, I know Knipex to be highly praised and most of their models are available at ~$15-20. But again, which to buy? Most of the recommendations (eevblog forums and similar) are based around Swiss size designations, and Knipex has their own.
As far as stuff that I’d feel comfortable buying on Aliexpress, here are some ideas:
helping hands - I will make something from coolant hoses and aligator clips. They sell them like this, but with huge markup.
silicone mat - to prevent small stuff getting lost forever on the table and the carpet, plus it is temperature resistant.
perfboard
magnification - I will get a loupe and a usb microscope - I know the quality probably leaves lot to be desired, but for $16 I don’t think it can be bad. I most certainly can’t afford the real deal and after seeing similar devices in various yt videos, I’m certain it serves its purpose.
T12 tips - I already have IL, KF, B2, BC2, and D24 tips, as seen here, but maybe some other could be useful. They are Hakko clones, but currently I can’t afford anything better and I believe for the money paid (around $80 shipped), I chose a nice soldering station.
I’m sure I have missed some stuff, but this is all I have came up with.
I’d also really like to see pictures of your work environments and tools, and I believe others would, too.
Maybe this thread can even become a sort of a guide for newbies like myself when it comes to equipment.
Thanks!