In life, it’s almost always possible to get by with bad tools, or even the wrong tools. But at some point, using a flathead screwdriver as a chisel gets old. And trying to desolder a joint by heating it and swiping at the melting solder with a bit of torn cardboard gets old fast. For specialty tasks like soldering, having the right kit not only helps get the best results, it might also mean the difference between a quick job and not even bothering to try. 

A good basic soldering kit, then, is essential. And today we’re going to take a look at what that kit looks like. 

Soldering Iron

Unless you have specific, specialist requirements, such as soldering large-gauge wire, you should buy a good battery-powered iron. The ease of setup alone makes it the best option for most people. You can take the tool to the job, instead of having to wrangle the job to your workbench. This is especially helpful in auto repairs, or with hobbies like drone racing.

(Are you a strictly-benchtop fixer? Try one job without a stiff, annoying cord dragging your hot soldering iron off the table and onto the floor and I think you’ll be pleased.)

We will of course recommend our own FixHub Portable Soldering Station, powered by a custom USB-C battery bank, connected via a flexible, heat-resistant silicone-sheathed USB-C cable with locking connectors.

The FixHub has an accelerometer inside. It knows when you have set it down, and goes into a power-saving standby mode after 30 seconds, dropping the temperature to around 200˚F. This saves power, makes things safer, and reduces wear on the tip. It also enables fall detection switching and switches off power if you drop it.

From a cold start, the iron reaches operating temperature in a few seconds, and when you’re done, you can cap it with the insulated cap and pocket it. We think its combination of features makes it attractive to power users, and also to inexperienced solderers who might otherwise be intimidated by the potential for injury or damage from a cheap, basic plug-in model.

If you’re on a budget, you can still go cordless with something like Hakko’s $45 FX-901. Or you can start your journey at a local makerspace.

Solder

Solder is the wire-like metal or alloy filament that you melt with the hot iron to join stuff together. Solder needs to melt at a lower temperature than the materials being joined, it needs to flow easily into the joint, it needs to stay stuck once it cools down, and it needs to form a strong, long-lasting joint.

There are many types of solder, from solid alloy filaments, through flux-cored filaments (see below), to pastes that are printed onto circuit boards prior to component placement and soldering in a reflow oven. For home use, you’ll be dealing with a few variants of lead-based and lead-free solder. 

Wait, did we say lead? Yup. Lead solder is like incandescent light bulbs. You know it’s bad, but it’s just so much nicer than the modern alternatives. Lead solder melts at relatively low temperatures, so it’s quick and easy to use, and it just flows better. Lead solders can also contain tin, which improves the “wetting” quality of the solder, i.e., it bonds better with the metals being joined. Lead solder also leaves less residue. 

The obvious downside is that it contains lead. Most electronics soldering irons, including FixHub, will not get hot enough to vaporize the lead and cause lung problems. However, if you have been working with lead, you should be careful to wash your hands after soldering (and don’t eat or drink meanwhile). Leaded solder is not permitted for commercial electronics use, but at home you can obviously do what you like, while taking the appropriate precautions. [Editor’s Note: This article previously warned that leaded solder could cause breathing problems. As @Shaddycat correctly points out in the comments below, that’s a common misconception and we apologize for reiterating it.]

Lead-free solder can be harder to use but is less damaging to your health, and so it should probably be your first choice for this reason alone. 

Other variants include acid-core solder, which is used in plumbing. The acid acts as a powerful flux that cleans the copper pipes and fittings, ensuring a good joint.

That’s already a lot of detail about solder for an article about getting a soldering kit together, so if you want to know more, this article contains a lot of good info. For a general guide, you can just buy as you go. Get a couple of rolls of lead-free solder (and also opt for a more specialist solder if you know your first job requires it), and then add more as and when needed. The same applies to flux, which is where we’re going next. 

Flux

Flux is a paste that you smear onto the parts to be soldered before applying the hot solder. It cleans the surfaces by removing oxidation and other impurities, making sure the solder flows well, and forms a good, long-lasting joint. You can solder without flux, but it’ll be more difficult, and the results will be worse.

Rosin-based fluxes are for electronics. They are non-corrosive, but require thorough cleaning after soldering to remove the residue. Water-soluble flux, used for plumbing, has an easier cleanup, and no-clean flux’s name explains itself. The latter is used in industrial processes. 

For electronics projects, you’ll want a rosin-based flux. You should apply it sparingly and evenly to all surfaces that will meet solder, and then clean the joint well once it cools with isopropyl alcohol.

Maybe you’ve noticed that our solder comes with a rosin flux core. That’s what it sounds like: the strand of solder has a strand of flux in the center of it, to help it melt better and faster.

Do you need to bother with extra flux if your solder already comes with a rosin flux core? You can get away without using it, but it will still help, especially if the surfaces you are soldering are oxidized or otherwise corroded. Too much flux isn’t great either, because it can slow down heating of the board and make it easier for solder to melt to nearby components, potentially bridging connections. But if you’re new to soldering, you’re more likely to burn off your flux as you’re working on a joint.

Tips

A soldering-iron tip is a consumable item. They wear out, getting dissolved by solder over time, and degrading with constant heating. A tip has a copper core for excellent heat conduction, and a thin iron plating to protect the copper from the corrosive solder. Solders with high tin content flow better, but wear tips faster.

You should choose a tip that matches your task. There are tips shaped like flathead screwdrivers, conical tips, knife-like tips, and long, tapered tips for reaching into tricky little corners.

Soldering larger wires requires a larger tip with more thermal mass, whereas small components benefit from a conical tip. You can see a full rundown of tip types, and their uses, in our How to Choose the Right Soldering Iron Tip guide.

You will also want a tip cleaner. The one that comes in the iFixit soldering toolkit is uses a brass wool sponge, which works well and resists heat. It also does not require water, like a sponge cleaner, and is abrasive, which helps cleaning.

Protective Gear

You’re dealing with hot metal, molten solder, and toxic fumes. You’re going to need eye protection, and some method of fume removal. We can vouch for our own DIY Soldering Kit Soldering Fume Extractor, but you can DIY even further with a computer fan, a battery, a cardboard tube and a carbon filter.

For what it’s worth, the iFixit soldering toolkit already comes with a pair of protective goggles. 

Helping Hands

You’re going to need one hand to hold the soldering iron, one to feed the solder into the joint, and one to hold each of the wires or components you are soldering together. How’s that math work out for you?

For soldering two wires together, a soldering splint is ideal. It’s two wiggly grooves that hold the wires in alignment while you work. For trickier jobs, helping hands can, well, help out. Helping hands are a pair of articulated alligator clips on a weighted base, and they may also include a magnifying glass for yet more helpfulness.

Another nice tool is a set of magnetic columns which stick to a metal baseplate, and let you either stick components to the top, or can clamp wires etc via another magnetic disk on top. This picture shows one of these, from PCBite, in action:

Desoldering

Desoldering means heating up an old joint in order to disassemble it. This could be to remove components for reuse, or as a precursor to a repair or replacement. If you just melted the solder, pulled out the old wire, and soldered the new one right on top, you would definitely not be the first. But you’ll get much better, longer lasting results if you remove the old solder properly.

The main ways are soaking up, or sucking up. A copper mesh wick, which soaks up the old solder as you heat it, works great, as the solder is attracted to the copper. You can also use various kinds of gadgets to vacuum up blobs of molten solder. These include spring-loaded syringes, and hand-squeezed bulbs. 

Best Kit

It’s easy to assemble your kit from the hardware store, and after a while you’ll probably end up with a few different kinds of solder, and a range of tips, for different tasks. If I was starting out today, though, I’d just buy the iFixit kit.

I know, I know, I’m totally biased as I write articles like this one for iFixit. But the FixHub Soldering Station is, in my opinion, the soldering iron to beat in terms of features and quality, and the entire iFixit Soldering Toolkit has that, plus all the other bits you need, for only $50 more than the soldering station on its own. Not to mention it’s nicely organized in a neat clip-shut tool-roll.

However you go about it, a small, well-made soldering kit is going to make all kinds of repairs possible that are impossible to do otherwise. 

Minimum Viable Kit

You don’t have to drop $299 just to start soldering. For many home repairs, you can get away with a much more basic setup. In fact, I still do most of my soldering—including a custom pickup circuit for an electric guitar, some DIY TRS midi cables, and even fixing broken jewelry—with an iron I picked up at the dime store many years ago. I hate it. The tip wobbles, the cable is so thick and stiff it makes the iron hard to use, and it takes forever to get hot. I almost imagine my entire apartment’s lights dimming when I plug it in. I have also been known to use wooden clothespins to hold the wires in place, but safety concerns prevent me from recommending such a flammable hack.

But there’s somewhere between the two. Buy a good, basic corded iron, some solder and flux, make a stand by bending an old wire coat hanger into shape, wet an old sponge to clean the tip as you go, and grab some helping hands to hold the wires in place. Those things are cheap. And you’re off. Anything else can come as and when you need it. 

For a budget kit, then, we’d recommend the following

• Hakko’s FX650-02/P soldering iron $42.99
• Lead-Free Solder $5.99
• Tack Flux syringe $13.99
• An old sponge
• Helping hands $9.99

That’s it. $73 and you have a setup that you can rely on, and build on as (and if) you grow.