From the course: Learning Soldering for Electronics

Basic hand tools used when soldering electronics

From the course: Learning Soldering for Electronics

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Basic hand tools used when soldering electronics

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- Now let's talk about a few of the hand tools that you'll want before you get started soldering. There aren't many, so this'll be a quick video. First things you want to consider are some wire cutters. These happened to be my favorite go-to wire cutters. They are able to trim wires in all different sizes. They also have a built-in cutter. They have a nice return spring. There are lots of different kinds and different handles and colors. And there's also automatic wire strippers. I don't really like the automatic ones because I feel like I don't have as much control as these. And quite often, I even just use a pair of wire cutters to grab the casing on the wire and strip it off or trim things. Now, speaking of wire cutters, what you don't want are these. And I find a lot of people use these at first, and it's a mistake. These type of wire cutters are really good for cutting just standard wire. But what we want to be able to do is to take a circuit board and get right up close to the solder joint, not right at the circuit board, but a little above it. And these angled flush cutters are really what you need. Look for the red handles. Everybody uses these, and there's a reason for it. They're awesome. Another thing you might want is a little pair of needle nose pliers. These are really great for grabbing small components, bending some wires. They're pretty valuable. Add that to your collection. So I've got my wire strippers, my flush cutters and last but not least, pair of tweezers. There are offset heads and all different kinds, but a nice pair of electronic tweezers are a must-have. You wouldn't think you need them when you're working on components like these five millimeter or three millimeter LEDs. But what happens when you get into a board like this? These little tweezers are so handy with picking up components and setting them in place. And that's all you really need when it comes to hand tools and learning to solder.

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