This will be my first time using a soldering iron and I have some questions about what would be the best kind to use, from the actual iron to the solder, as well as confirmation on the theory of technique.
I watched the soldering basics video from Erv posted in a thread, which says to use a low temperature one, but found a conflicting thread (firebird's stickied how to solder) where someone says they use an 800f iron.
So what's better? a cheap 400f or a dual temp 850f-950f?
And in regards to the solder, I understand that I need to be using a lead free rosin. I am able to get electrical solder (that says its for speaker wires, motors/ appliances) as well as a 'specialty solder kit' that says it is silver solder and water soluble flux (that says the kit is for circuit boards and jewelry repair).
Which would be better to use?
As for technique, I think I get the gist of soldering wires together, but for soldering the wire to the luxeon star is where I start to get worried...
I don't want to wreck the LED
and I think my correct course of action is to pre-tin the wire, then heat up the point on the star where I want the connection to be and then place pre-tinned wire to that spot and that's it? It sounds almost to simple to be easy. How heat sensitive is the LED star - can using that 850f soldering iron damage it ? (aside from touching the LED obviously)
At the moment I am just wiring in a LuxeonIII but plan to use soundboards in the (near)future, that's why I think it best to use the specialty kit. even though I dont know what the flux is for!
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